Samurai Tango
by FictionPloo
Summary: The traveling trio stumble into a city, Jin's not being himself coupled with the company of a stranger and Mugen is just being plain weird, and Fuu don't know what to do when things go down in Japan town. Rated M for violence,language,and adult situations
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note_ : This chapter has now been revised for errors - date of revision : March 10th. Readers who may find grammatical mistakes, errors, world doubles, misspells etc, if you would be so kind as to inform me in a message I'd be very thankful._Also know that if you view my profile you will find out when new chapters are going to be submitted and the time between each submission and hints of what will be in the those chapters_**.**_

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Chapter 1

Murky Monster

Fuu stared out at the sea with a blank expression, her eyes still and almost lifeless. The view of swelling waters slowly rushing into the sandy beach and withdrawing came absent in her mind. Her thoughts were so deep at the moment visual focus somehow had been abandoned temporarily. Two days, two whole days without a single bite of food. Earlier that day, lightheadedness threatened her legs and kept trying to tip her brain over and asleep, but it was unsuccessful for the most part. Their endless venture down a narrow worn footpath of bare dirt through some dense woods had kept her going. They couldn't just stop right there, Jin would have but Mugen, stubborn and too forward on every subject insisted they keep going. Whatever energy supply he was running on she would have killed to know about.

He could keep going for days, she thought. Although given his nature and disposition, he most likely was just as washed over with hunger as she was and drug down no deeper than either her or Jin, to the point of roaring stomachs, dizziness, and lack of energy. Mugen wouldn't dare exploit himself if it meant he would be sitting on the same level as Fuu, so he didn't complain once. And although famine hung over them, the day had been very nice. The sun was out and the sky free of passing clouds, blameless blue. The air was warm and the occasional breeze cool to perfection. It was too nice for them to feel so lousy. And as if to go further to mock how nice the day was, they did not lay eyes on one town or village while traveling the long forest path. Nothing but more forest and more cool dirt road. They could tell that no one had traveled that path since it had rained last and maybe even longer, with no tracks of passing travelers from the past. Fuu could not pull her thoughts on anything else beside her hunger, and it was pointless to dwell on that since she was long past the phase of hopeless dwelling and complaining.

"No ryu, not a single coin of it and no town for miles. Looks like we're going to hafta do some fishing," Mugen said out of nowhere. Sitting a few feet from her in the grass he laid sprawled out on his back staring up at the bland stretch of blue far above him. He turned his head to peer at Fuu, seeing she was still sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest and thin arms hugged around them with her chin caressed atop her two knees as they hardly touched. She looked solemn and lonely, and he was fond of that, probably the only thing worth being fond of about her, cause she was being quiet, had been since early afternoon when she finally shut up about going without food, and guessing from how badly she had been complaining, someone would have thought she was near death for starvation. His stomach he let do all the complaining and after while when it didn't get what it wanted, it too, shut up.

Fuu kept starring out, except this time her eyes took in the view ahead, a soft breeze surged in, stirring the grass and teasing loose wisps of their hair. "I don't have the energy," she said softly.

"Then it looks like you ain't gonna eat," he replied smugly and groaned forcing himself forward and up, now sitting up and able to see the ocean which continued on until it met the horizon. Instinctively he awaited an immediate rebuttal from Fuu. He only got a shrug, nearly confusing him. "Geez, are you that bad off," he asked roughly.

"It's getting late, the sun's fixing to go down and it will be too dark to see where the fish are," she said and finally turned to look at him.

"Keh, not if you're me," he said proudly and got up to his feet looking around, "Hey! Where did four-eyes go?"

"Huh," Fuu broke from her sitting to look around as well. "I, I don't know, he was here a moment ago . . . wasn't he?" Confusion laced her last words

"I don't know, but he better be doing something useful," he said and sighed in annoyance. "He's probably off chasing rabbits with his teeth, dumb-ass," he mumbled walking off and down the slope that led to the flat stretch of beach, the grass ending where the slope did and the sand began.

Fuu stood watching him go, the oncoming breezes shifting loose hair out of place and in effort to keep it out of her eyes she folded a lock behind her ear and managed to contain good speed chasing after Mugen as he neared the water's edge. He didn't look back to catch sight of her. Blue hills of swollen waves no higher than his shins gushed in and lazily washed back out, white foam trimming the waters edge. Without a word he kicked off his wooden clogs to the side where the waters wouldn't come up and steal them away and approached the cold waters. The sand felt good on his bare feet, gushing between his toes comfortably as he descended further into the water, distancing himself from the beach until he was sure he was in shallows deep enough to catch a passing fish, or rather, deep enough to where fish lived.

Guiltless cold gray eyes scanned the waters cautiously, taking note to any sudden movement that might displace it's self from the murky white-blue sand at the bottom. His sight turned and roved carefully as he loomed above, ready handed with arms in quick-draw position. Fuu watched him holding her tongue impatiently. If he caught a fish right off, she knew she was going to jump into the air, whooping and carrying on like an idiot. She would be saved from dying through the night as her stomach tried to consume its self, or so her conscious believed. And if he did get a catch, he would share, stubbornly, but he would. For a while he only watched, and then time slowly crept on by, he was seeing nothing and going further out proved no help either. There was no fish near here, either that or staying clear of him. The water was clear up to his chest now and he could feel the waves surging against him, forcing him to sway in rhythm to keep his balance.

Near insane with the pulse to go out to him and see if she might be luckier, Fuu quietly waded out and when she was knee-deep Mugen happened to catch sight of her through the corner of his eye as he had turned ever so slowly. He snarled and clenched his teeth, "Idiot! Get out of the water, your going to scare them away!"

"And you're not?"

"Just do what I tell you already," he snapped viciously and watched her turn back for the shore. Suddenly movement and color caught his eye. He whipped his head down to see a wall of gray blur whir a couple of yards away. The flash of excitement turned to horror and his heart stopped, "What tha- Fuck! Fuck! What the fuck is that!?" he yelped treading as fast as possible back to the shore, tossing up waves of water as he splashed to the beach not looking back.

Fuu watched the whole scene wide-eyed and screaming over and over, "What! Mugen! What, Tell me! What!" By the time he got to her she was in panic as much as he was. She clutched at his gi's sleeve furiously, demanding answers.

"Damn it, Let go ya'crazy bitch," he panted out and jerked his arm away. He turned to look back at the waters, seeing if the 'thing' was able to be seen from where he now was and it wasn't. "I never . . . Fuck! That thing was huge!"

"What thing," she asked flexing her fingers delicately and shook off the pain left from her nails being jerked from his gi, completely forgotten of it.

He looked at her and then back to the waters and then her again, unsettled. "I don't know, I don't think I wanna go back out there, whatever it was, it was big enough to eat you."

"Your exaggerating," she smugly replied.

"Tch, fine then, you don't believe me, then you go out there."

"I'm not going out there if what-ever-it-was scared you away!"

"Didn't scare me!"

"Oh yeah, that's why were you squealing like a little girl." Fuu folded her arms eyeing him challengingly.

Mugen swiftly came at her and lowered his face to hers and gazed at her cold and tense, "I wouldn't be gett'n on my nerves or I will toss you out there."

"Like you could," she mumbled and tossed her face to her shoulder.

"Hmph, oh yeah?" Grunting he reached for her and grabbed her up by her waist, lifting her into him. Fuu gave a muffled scream, her face buried in his chest as he lifted her up walking ankle-deep into the water. When she heard his feet splashing she instantly began going into a motionless fit, berating him with her jerky movement and whaled a horrible scream as she felt him lift her higher and felt his arms flexing to prepare to toss her.

"Ah, Mugen, please, please don't do it, Please!" she squealed horrifically.

Smirking evilly he still held her up and tittered an awful laugh of satisfaction and with that he lowered her and walked off. "I wouldn't do that anyhow, then that thing would really want to eat me for letting it get your bad tastes in its mouth."

Fuu was quiet, filled with relief.

"What did you see," came Jin's cool voice. He stood at the end of the slope looking at them blandly. Both Mugen and Fuu perked up and looked in his direction.

"Just where the hell was you at," Mugen challenged hotly.

"I killed a couple of rabbits," he replied simply and the evidence of his work lay slung over his shoulder and down his backside, with only four back paws drawn together in a worn tether poking above his left shoulder to show for it.

Mugen did not hesitate to break out in an amused cackle, "What did I tell you, huh Fuu, huh?"

Fuu's hands were already clasped palm to palm, a wide grin on her face. "Great job Jin! I'll help you clean them."

"What is he laughing about, what did he tell you," Jin asked calmly, clearly concerned.

Making way past Mugen she went to Jin, reaching out to take his catch off his shoulder and he let her helping. "Oh nothing, he's an idiot."

"Hmmm, I speculate an idea," he replied.

"Well don't worry about it," she said carefully hoisting the limp animals off his shoulder with his hands holding most their weight. Lifting them, Fuu took her hands back and observed the animals, "These are pretty big, how did you catch them?"

"I smoked their burrow out and trapped them," he answered in his always-even-toned-voice that was overly calm and lacking enthusiasm. Albeit he had killed the poor creatures, Fuu would be more than happy to help clean and serve them up. She watched Jin take the animals weight back over his shoulder holding onto the tether that laced them tightly in his left hand and carried on with slow patience to the beach, pausing right where the tide gushed in and squat down, sitting both rabbits in the sand. Fuu was right behind him the whole way and Jin found her squatted before him taking out the tanto blade she had with the fashionably pink scabbard.

The metal of the thin blade rasped a smooth grating sound as it was unsheathed and she quickly, and as Jin thought: skillfully cut the tether and positioned the rabbit so it lay with it's limbs sprawled out on it's backside, leaving the other rabbit to Jin who worked somehow even faster and more gracefully as he delicately cut the belly of the creature from neck to genitals and carefully took out the unnecessary organs and such and did away with the hide. Fuu was a few minutes behind him when she finished and gave the animal back to Jin who washed them in the water.

Mugen since had found himself nice little upraised hill in the sand to sit back and relax against with ankles crossed and arms folded behind his head, eying them with a gaunt expression of happy laziness. "I'll leave the housework to the ladies," he commented smugly and eased back further. His company paid him nor his tongue any attention as they finished the rabbits, returning to the slope and up into the grassy field that extended some distance where the forest walled off the horizon, carrying on both west and east for miles parallel to the beach and the ocean beyond it.

Jin was quick handed in everything. He set up the fire, with Fuu's help, quickly returned from the edge of the forest with two narrow and nearly straight sticks long enough to center through the rabbits long length and pitch into the ground, so the heat of the fire cooked them with the occasional licking of flames at the juicy meat that glistened heavenly soon enough, their mouths watered at the very sight of a droplet of melted fat beading off one of the rabbits. Jin's framed eyes peered at the meal dully, tediously watching and anxiously waiting as much as Fuu. Stoic in nature, he kept his lips pursed and tongue still for the most part until Fuu stole the silence with light conversation, her soft voice grabbing at him.

"He's asleep isn't he," she asked incredulously, amazed for some reason Mugen could just doze off on the sandy beach. Jin lifted his chin peering down over the slope to observe this for himself. He concluded the vagrant was, or otherwise would have made one of his snide comments by now. And for good reasons this relieved them both, for their stomachs sake and calms sake. "I can't believe him, what a dope,"

Jin peered back at the flames. "Hhn, dope. He was probably no doubt more tired than you or I."

"Why's that?"

"Because, when we were in that last town, he happened to do more work then even me-"

"Shocking!" Fuu cut in an exaggerated and bored way, a little annoyed that Jin would actually be presumptuous enough to get the idea that Mugen, that rat of all rats would do more work than Jin. _Yeah right! I know he spent that gold already!_

Jin since, gently closed his mouth and observed her delicately to convey he was being honest.

"Oh come on, you know he didn't earn that gold, stealing isn't hard work when your as good at it as he his."

"No, actually he took up a short round for a couple of days at musashi stand, how else do you think we could afford that room in the inn there?"

"You were working too, weren't you?" Her eyes gaped open at him, unsure and trying to speculate his answer which wasn't forth coming and that led her to assume that, No, he had not been working, and that the leftover ryu they started with when they got to that town paid for the meal they ate and the rest on some brothel whore Jin entertained himself with for two days. That didn't seem at all like him, but where else could he have been at night. Men did not make leave only at night to go work or roll-some-dice, not that late, and he wasn't the sort to make drunk bouts casual. As loose-lipped as Fuu may have been most of the time, she said nothing, the air between them already thick as both knew what the other did.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Burning Flame

Mugen woke with a sudden start as his eye's tore open. The ocean view was warmly darkened, conflagrations of blazon orange and pink frosted the tips of deep blue waves far out into the waters, kissing the horizon as the sun ascended downward into its hidden nocturnal recess. The crystal twinkle of stars began to show themselves for the night, a velvet black veil stole the sky when light faded, dazzling onlookers below with a spectacular view of the shimmering heavens. His body, sunken in the sand and entirely engulfed in warm relaxation did not want to move, and so Mugen stayed where he was, having watched the sun make its leave and its light follow.

Deep blue shadows bathed over him and the land, the beach was beautiful at night, the ocean black though zen in the tune the waves played, small creeping creatures quietly and slowly moving about in the sand, picking at dampened bits of kelp that had washed up with the tide during the day, now left to feed the night stalkers who called this place home. The air was cool and caressed him gently in a slow pace, drifting over his body delicately so as not to stir his clothing or hair but comfort his skin and nose with the salty smell of the sea. It sure as hell was nice for a change, he thought drowsily. And it was nice, nice to sit and have a nap in the middle of nowhere and not be kicked or yelled awake. Fuu and her damn mouth never shut up for one second, at least until today, and thank the spirits.

He had not complained for food even when his mind clawed at it most the day before his nap, and neither had his company, which surprised him. Fuu of all the people in the world would and should have complained the most, but she hadn't, and Mugen was struck odd at this. Maybe they _were_ that bad off. Two days without a single bite to eat and not to mention having walked nearly all the daylight hours in that time, it was a lot of energy spent, probably why he dozed off so easily, he concluded with a sigh and stretched his legs out, the slender muscles pulling taught with a high-pitched popping of his left ankle. God, it felt nice to nap like that. It was the sort of sleep where you pass out so fast you didn't even know when you fell asleep and nothing in the world could wake you, so by the time you woke your body and minds were refreshed and enlivened to a state of complete happy bliss.

"Hey!"

_So much for that_, he thought as Fuu's loud, annoying-ass voice pieced through the calm like a rusty dagger into his ear. He should have known better than to ease right into his calm-state of being, and so said goodbye with a groan as he pushed himself upright and twisted around. All he could see was the uprise of the slope and silhouette-black grass fringing where Fuu's headed barely poked above, one half of her face bathed in warm orange light, the other unseen in the nightly shadows. "What," he called back sharply, annoyance clearly edging his voice.

"Hungry," she asked and her features lite up with a clever smile as her hand rose up holding what appeared as a glossy half-eaten leg smothered in greasy, tasty, mouth-watering food! His eyes absorbed the image, mentally consuming the juicy portion in her hand, his face danced with a look Fuu found sinister and comical at the same time, literally-almost like waving a chunk of meat before a dog who turned out to be entirely happy and entranced by it. She coughed a laugh watching him scramble in the dark and arrive in the light of the fire where Jin sat cross-legged and humble in his calm way, carefully and neatly picking at a hunk of honey-brown meat that dribbled juices down his fingers.

The smell of the ocean, the rustic smell of flame consuming wood was dead to his senses. No, only the smell of the rabbits leaned on sticks into the flame, cooking still, captured his nose. It was maddening! Glorious, and oh so fucking delicious looking. "Oh yeah," he purred and found him a nice spot right there in front of those scrumptious looking babies and ripped a leg right off, digging in like a starved dog.

Fuu jerked the leg from her lips, tearing a slender bit of meat off and huffed, "Hey don't go plowing in like a pig! Save some for the rest of us."

Fatty grease glazed his lips and part of his chin from the bite he took, not yet chewed with noticeable hunks pocketed in his cheeks, "I'll leave the plowing up to you, pig," he retorted nastily and sank his teeth back into the leg.

"Anyhow," she said with a mouthful, "When do you think we are going to come across another town," her lips closed for a second and the food that was in her mouth gulped down her throat rather loudly, "I mean, we've been going for two days now, we got to come across something soon."

Jin, who was the most mannerly at their dinner looked up at the two and paused to swallow neatly, "If we are where I think we are, if we leave in the morning, by noon we should come to Oduru," he said quietly and went back to eating.

"Oduru, the fuck kind of name is that, _Oduru_, psh," Mugen said.

"It sounds nice," Fuu's soft and rather gentle voice commented. Nothing but the bone and bits too small for counting were left on the leg she had had. She sat back and pat her belly, "That was excellent."

Purposely slow Mugen's head turned her way, "You're done!?"

"Yeah," she answered innocently. "I was hungry all right, but so empty that little bit seems enough," she said watching her two companions, observing them with a lookers eye and took in the view of them tiredly. "I'm not sleepy yet either, that's weird cause usually I am by now, even with food."

"Perhaps you're worried," Jin cut in after a short nibble. His leg was not but a bone and so he took the last hind leg left of the two animals.

For a minute it was quite, and when Jin didn't think she was going to reply Mugen spoke up, "Worried about what?"

_Finding the Samurai who smells of sunflowers, finding a village or town, or something where we don't have to sleep outside, and a decent meal, but mostly the samurai, we have to find him. At least Jin knows where were headed and were not lost and off track of where we should be going, _She thought mundanely and stretched out a yawn. "I'm worried all right," she finally answered.

"What does a pip-speak like you have to worry about, we got all the hard work here, and your going to say your wor-"

"Hey! I help, I helped clean the rabbits and cook them!" she yelled leaning forward toward that shaggy-haired-dirty-filth!

"Oh really?" he asked gruffly and leaned into her, both of them nearly touching foreheads and giving expressions of complete disgust.

"Really," she huffed.

"Did you catch those rabbits? Did you pay for that room we stayed in last, and oh yeah, how about the meal back there?" Tossing her face to the side, she sat back, ignoring him purposely. "Yeah, really," he hissed smugly and tore into the rabbit again, taking a good portion. "And you, you ain't been much help either!"

Jin kept to himself, not letting one sign slip from himself as to Mugen's words. That creaton wasn't worth the time to waist breath on with an argument, and really, he didn't want to argue this one. It was enough that Fuu now knew his currency when they stayed in villages. It wasn't like he hadn't bought a prostitute before, yet the example Fuu was getting to see of him more and more, the ronin swathed in depressive blue did not find likable nor suitable to his status, not that it was great either, but still. Fuu was young, and a man such as himself should not been seen in that sort of light, it could ruin her perception of men. He exhaled deeply with all this clouding his thoughts. It only happened two times, the first had been enticed by Mugen, and while that was solely his choice to follow pursuit, he planned to not be so enticed hereafter. From now on, Jin thought, he would be dignified and proper, so long as the situation didn't betray this promise to himself, situations where some idiot blundered in their path as so often happened with Fuu around, getting herself in danger. Situations as such, called for action, and that part on him would always remain. He would keep his promise to the girl, just as he had been, although now, it was time to at least act with manners.

The whole time he was thinking, his mouth was discreetly nibbling juicy bits of meat he monotonously kept picking from the rabbit opposite the one Mugged tore at with greedy hands, now appearing sated as he sat back, wild mane of liquid brown hair crowning his shaggy dome lay limp in the humid air permitting from the sea. Fuu was likewise accept prettier. For a young lady, she had a nice smooth face, large brown eyes that glistened like those of a doe, and hair she managed to keep pinned and neat looking, smooth silky hair to add. She would make some man in the later future very happy, Jin thought. And while he did get sick of her diarrhea of the mouth, that would fade away with age. So far as could he depict and foresee, she would from this journey alone acquire a lot of knowledge and skills that most women did not have, he himself had already acquired certain things he did not have when they started this hazardous venture across the Japanese countryside. He saw many things worth taking the trip to see, and gained friendship whether or not he wanted to admit that openly.

A deep side of him enjoyed Fuu and Mugen's company. They gave him something to focus on, albeit if it was a clashing of swords or words, it was nice. Just maybe he wasn't wrong to bed those prostitutes, he needed the release of that frustration, the sort that men had as tension built up and they could find nothing to sate it. Crude enough, sex had been the answer. There was nothing more arousing than a beautiful maiden with silken black hair more dark than a moonless night and eyes like that of the heavens above; dark and glittering. Both of the women he bought were subtle and soft, they smelt of fragrances his nose had not yet taken in, like citrus, peach, and lilacs. His heart raced just to think of those scents and it reminded him of those women, and every time, if ever again he smelt those smells again, he would remember the nights with those women.

They were coy and delicate, graceful too and somewhat shy, and whether that was an act or not, Jin would not care. They knew his body better than he and all the ways to make it cry out for release as he did for their bodies, the room filled the lilting tune of a woman's song when in the act of lovemaking. Humbled in thought, Jin sighed loudly. Fuu eyes perked and darted on him, "Something wrong," she asked, worry edging her tone.

"Not at all," he answered smooth. "I am worn out and just need time alone." The idea of alone time didn't even enter his mind before his lips said it. It was true. "I," he said coming to stand and look down on the girl who had averted her attention to the fire tiredly, "I am going to wash up and sit alone, I will return to sleep, do not worry," he said softly and departed. Fuu watched him leave curiously.

"Okay . . . "

With eyes resting shut and chin cupped in one palm with a folded arm on one of his crossed legs, Mugens gruff tone spilled out, "Shea'right, he's going to go choke a chicken, that's what."

"Choke a-Ugh, your gross Mugen!"

"I call'em like I see'em."

"No, he's been acting . . . off a bit here recently, haven't you noticed?"

"Off? He's jacking off is what," an amused smile stretched his lips and finally his eyes tore open to catch her exaggeratedly unamused expression. "What?"

"Hmph, nothing, you're so disgusting," Fuu spit out and folded her arms.

Eyes glimmering evilly Mugen leaned forward and gazed at her intensely, "Oh come on Fuu, you've done it before too."

"Done what," she barked giving back his determined glare. Mugen's dark brows wiggled noticeably as that stupid smirk deepened the creases of his smile. _What a nasty pig you are! _"I would never do something so sick!"

"You wouldn't eh? So, your saying Jin is sick for doing it? I think I'll tell him-"

"No!," Her arms unlaced and she gaped at him with a horrified look. It wouldn't bother her for Jin to think she thought that was sick of him, but for him to find out they were discussing him doing 'that thing', gross and embarrassing, not to mention it left her feeling mortified Mugen would tell him, and knowing him he would add onto it to make it all the worse.

"Then admit it," he said in his 'I know everything' tone of voice. When her answer didn't arrive, he uncrossed his legs, making to get up, seeming like he was going to go tell Jin. Fuu knowing he was only trying to push things out of her still held onto that one thin string of despair that he might actually do it.

"But, I haven't! Honest! Your no fair." Mugen huffed in annoyance to her pleas and took off and before he could get to steps away Fuu's arms were clinging around one of legs, "No! I told you the truth! I swear it's the truth."

Stiff legged, he peered down at her with a smile that could scare the devil back into hell. Oh if he wasn't creepy and annoying! "Is that so," came his voice cutting through the silence that fell over the camp. His voice was smooth and laid back, too smooth, the sort of tone that let you know he knew too much for his own good, her good. Afraid he'd slap her off his leg she had her face tucked chin-down so at least he'd only hit her head and when nothing came she chanced peeking up at him. What she found was not the greatest thing, with his brows wiggling stupidly and that look that matched his tone. _What is he thinking!?_

Suddenly his hands were coming down at her and she tucked her face away again in attempt to save herself but he didn't slap at her. Rough hands swept under her arms and with some pain lifted her up unwillingly. _Oh god_, she thought, _He's going to throw me into the water this time! _He lifted her to her feet and studied her up and down. Noticing, Fuu tried to stammer but couldn't when he shook her slightly, "Hey, chill out," he whispered. For some bizarre reason a blush painted her cheeks pink, although she faced away from the fire, not allowing it to be seen. Using an incisor, he bit at his lower lip. "So, you never touched yourself?"

His question seeped into her ears ever so silkily and made her heart peak several times. Her cheeks were hot enough to melt, she thought and gulped. "Mugen," she pleaded softly, "I don't want to answer that."

He could see the blush on her face, down her neck, even on her hands in the faint shadows of the camp. Her eyes were downcast, worry and distress consuming her features. _No kidding, _he thought wondrously. He jacked off, god knows how many times in a week, just about every time he was off alone or went off alone, hell he would do it if Fuu and Jin were asleep in the room. He never thought of her doing it, never questioned if she did, always assuming she either never had or didn't know how. With that last thought alone his smile grew more devious and then somehow his expression softened to a demure look of 'know it all'. In a sharp turn of the head he looked left then right and then down at her still held up with his hands cupped in the pits of her arms, she who was looking down pitifully. Glancing around he didn't see ol'fish face at all, the darkened blue hue of the night darkness still allowing him to see to the beach somewhat, _Yeah, he's jerking it off somewhere,_ he said to himself focusing on her. "Hey you ever tried?"

He sounded deep and sexy to her all of the sudden. _That voice! Oh! _She wanted to scream and throw a conniption right then and there but just hearing that voice of his caused her to forget about it entirely, drowning her in utter self-confusion. A certain quality and knowing laced him so that she lingered to hear what he was going to say next, knowing he was being guileful. "I, I told you Mugen," she said tossing a worried look up at him to find dancing grey eyes sparkling in the fire behind her, the heat of his hands was causing her to sweat.

"Heh, no problem, I'll show you," he said in tone slick as grease and warmer than velvet red that made her want to melt and die of embarrassment at the same time.

"Show me what," she coughed jerking out of his grasp.

"Come'ear," he coughed back, gaining a hold back on her shoulders this time. Fuu didn't know what to expect, that lech would do anything just to get off no doubt and then tear away her dignity later if she had any left. _Oh god, _she thought as a heavy feeling settled over her, weighing every inch of her mind, body, and heart down. She winced as he pulled her into his chest then found herself being turned around to face the fire. _Oh god, what is he going to do. I can scream for Jin, but then. Oh god! _With her back against his chest she turned her head to look back at him with a cautious eye and found him peering down her body, watching his own hands smooth down her curves slowly . . . sensually. Her breath caught in her throat feeling a rough heated palm smooth down the fabric over one of her breast. She huffed tenderly as his other hand made way past her hip and stopped to rest there. "You can say no anytime," he whispered in her ear and without warning, warm wet lips plunged to her neck in the most heated and intoxicating way she had ever felt. She wanted to crash into herself and forfeit existence, but only a huff of hot breath could escape past her lips.

Entering the library of words she knew, such as no or don't, nothing came, that infinite recess of her mind had burned to the ground from the heat of her body. Her brain was nothing more than a melted puddle of white mush, her body goo. A huff of soft laughter pushed out his nose as his teeth scraped the inner curve of her neck, his hands pressing into her figure, staying in place, thank god, she thought.


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Note : Sorry this came so late. I've been busy working my book, as most may not know, I am an aspiring novel writer. I'm very busy at the present moment and had hoped to get this chapter in sooner. To my readers and reviewers, thank you guys very much, and know that you encourage me to continue this story and I am exceptionally appreciative of you guys interest. Forgive my horrid grammar mistakes in the previous chapters and this one and tune in for the next chapter which will come sooner than this one did. =)

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Chapter 3

Subdued

Her back, her body was sunken into his, she could feel his warmth pressing and blossoming into her, although neither of them really knew if they were giving off the heat of their body or receiving it from the other. Fuu's heart fluttered desperately, clinging to some small hope this was not happening. Mugen's hands came to a slow but sudden still, one rough palm resting on her hip with care, tucked between the stretch of supple kimono-covered skin between her inner hip and slender abs which had no definition of muscle tone what so ever, and he didn't care or think of that at all. His other hand lay stretched against her upper sternum, finger tips pressing in gently.

No: used to give a negative response. That word was lost along with her mind. She felt his lips against her neck, his breath hot, his tongue sending quaking shivers through her entire body inside and out. Mugen carefully walked his lips up her neck, traveling to her ear. Enticement. He knew what he was doing, even if it was Fuu, she was a girl after all, and yeah, he cared about her, yet to be shallow she annoyed the hell out of him and really wasn't what he considered a "babe." He watched her of course, not in a creepy, 'peeking through the bushes to watch you pee' sort of way. It wasn't like that. He watched her facial expressions, her behaviors and still, his conscious lied and told him it was only to understand the prissy bitch.

Too girly, perhaps, and maybe that was why he felt the need to touch her so, to taste her. And as he kissed her, all these thoughts were arguing in his head. He almost had stopped himself, actually considered what he was about to do before the kiss came, considering the repercussions, something he had never done in his entire life. And he had kissed her neck, using his chin to ease aside the collar of her pink kimono. Her skin was soft, salty, and warm. His need then started to peak and both of them, standing pressed to one another realized that this wasn't a game of tease and torture, he was really kissing her and she was really shutting her mouth and letting it happen.

Fuu blushed madly at that knowledge, her breath catching in her throat to the point that she almost couldn't breathe. The coughing gags he heard her making made him stop then, and regret tried to settle. "You can say no anytime, ya'know," Fingers curling delicately Fuu exhaled deeply and maintained her breaths after, or attempted to. She heard him huff a laugh out his nose softly and wanted to turn her head to peer up at him, except she was too afraid to look at him, that maybe both would realize the rawness of the situation and stop there. She didn't want him to stop, not yet and could not for the life of her understand why she was being this way, why she was arguing with her own conscience.

He stayed his hands and finally went back into motion as his chin dipped down kissing the soft line of her jaw, the stubble on his chin rough and grating against her smooth skin and a large part of her took notice and focused on that, enjoying it. " . . . M,Mugen?"

"Yeah," he exhaled whisperatively, lips pulling away. She said nothing, afraid to break the moment. He wasn't about to, Jin might return in the next ten to thirty minutes and he wasn't going to waste one minute or second. Lips touching to her chin, his hand moved between her breasts swiftly and up, just the mere brush of his warm palm between such personal places on her body made her shiver, the tips of her breasts stiffened in response and she knew he noticed as another huff of soft laughter was breathed out his nose. His fingers bent up and turned her face to his. Fuu's eyes were found focusing on something in the distance and nothing, distraction so not to look at him, he thought. "Hey, you can say no and I'll stop . . . you don't want me to, do you?"

The remark was mocking of course, yet done gently enough that it didn't annoy her. She bit her lip tipping her chin down avoiding his gaze completely. Another huff of that short laughter he had, not the 'tch' type, but the 'heh' kind where he was mildly amused and comfortable with his surroundings enough to let down the complex wall of defense one would call his ego. In a seemingly awkward way, it calmed Fuu as well. She was nervous, but not as much as she had been, as if each laugh he gave and chance to say no relaxed her. The burdening thought that it was in fact Mugen, yes, that crude good for nothing, stinking scoundrel, it was him: Mugen who had relaxed her and in a way Fuu never had pondered on, that was until now. Her body language came foreign to her but she was eager to learn.

Mugen's smokey gray gaze bored into her, waiting and watching for her doe eyes to wander up to meet his own eyes. He waited, his body withering inside, bubbling heat rising and in the moments that passed when she didn't meet his gaze, the boil began to cool. "Hey!" Both of them jumped at the sudden interruption of his own loud voice, startling them both which made Fuu snicker and finally look up at him. To Mugen she appeared out of the phase he had her in, and it wasn't to his liking. The usual annoyance he always felt from her had returned and he begrudged himself for letting that happen, except that, it was his fault. His lands grew loose against her and he looked away just as Fuu's eyes got still again and glazed over in that profound look of innocense.

"Ye-yes, I'm, I mean yes," she answered soft and nervous. Large brown eyes focused on him with such intensity he found it hard to even look at her now. He did it anyway, and felt profoundly strange, as if connecting to her out of his body, not able to make sense of it.

"Nothin," he said and smirked as another seemingly brilliant idea struck him. Smoothing his hand down the front of her torso, thin fingers slipped under the edge of the fold of her kimono. That is when he heard it and felt it too; her heart beat pounding furiously. He'd given her chances to say no, and she knew what sort of guy he was. He had to see her, feel her, with clothing on it was a tease and she'd regret it later if he didn't do this, Mugen thought, trying to justify his reasons for his actions. Her heart beat, her breathing, her nervousness, they were all very active when he slipped aside one half of her kimono. Soft pale flesh blushing met his eyes like that of an angelic piece of fine art only few eyes ever got to see in person.

The upper portion of her kimono still edged the curve of her breast as he slowly, watching carefully, pulled it aside to take in the site of her well-formed globe of soft flesh that made up her breast. Fuu's breath sucked in fast and was being withheld tight in her lungs. She almost could feel his eyes prying on her, absorbing the image of her pink-nippled breast. His hand swam over it, causing her to exhale unexpectedly and he smirked all the more while teasing the tip of her breast between his fingers as he massaged her gently. One of her eyes watched his hand, the other shut as his grasp tightened and loosened, heating up the region between her legs more than necessary. Just as before, his hand slipped to places she didn't want explored, yet that distant part of her mind wanted him to and he listened to it somehow.

Mugen trailed his fingers slowly down her stomach, flawlessly soft against her, causing more tingles to ripple throughout her being and then through him as she watched stray hairs rise up on his arms. For the first she realized how hard he was breathing, how fast his heart was going. It surprised her he actually was on the same ground level she was, when Fuu knew or thought she knew, that Mugen was far beyond her mental boundaries and things such as love and foreplay came so naturally that it couldn't possibly stir his nervous system in the least. It did after all, who would have known? Fuu did now and the part of her conscience that knew reality and wrong from right became distorted and forgotten in the sea of feelings he was invoking. There was a large part of her that said to do something, anything, but only on the terms that it couldn't be something she chose to do every day. Breathing unsteady her chin turned inward toward his own, eyes clashing with his own and Mugen's hand stopped as he briefly peered down at her and her lips caught his. At first he was surprised then it made sense. Fuu of all the girls in the whole freaking world, she would pause the moment, stall on the good part that was about to come to kiss him. And as he thought this and felt annoyance, it all melted in an instant with his eyes closing and lips forming to hers.

New to this? Absolutely, he thought pushing his mouth more into hers, gesturing to her that there was more to this than touching, of which she didn't get at first and he urged it more. His tongue slipped from his mouth, peeping through her soft lips and she woke up to the idea he was trying to get through to her. Fuu let her lips part, understanding what he was trying to get to, his tongue was hot and held strange tastes, but not bad one's. Wet and intoxicating she let him explore her mouth and deaden reality further as they locked into a kiss for several moments. Fuu finally found her focus when she felt his hand sink lower, pushing past her obi and down into place only she knew about, though not for long. He continued kissing her, trying to distract her from his hand at first, and the lower it went the softer her skin became, delicate skin that never had seen the sun or felt his rough palms before, no ones rough or soft, or whatever hands before, he thought as Fuu tensed.

Their lips pouting and moistened pulled apart reluctantly as she tensed and exhaled deeply. The destination his fingers were meant to go to arrived, she was warm and it was soft as rose petals, nearly like the new bud of a forming rose, velvety. Using two fingers only, they slipped between the creases of her folds; between in outer most and inner folds of her lips in the secret most place of her body. Fuu had gasped softly, falling more so into him now as his fingers pressed into her soft warmness, warm liquids engulfed his fingers the further he slid them into her folds and then began to pull back and she squeaked tensing her thighs tight.

"M,Mugen," she cooed soft and desperate, and not in the way he expected her to call his name. What he expected was for her to scream and throw a fist, but his name met his ears silkily, an urgent message of her desires that what he was doing was right and she didn't want him to stop, yet somehow explain why and how what he was doing made her feel this indescribable way. Tenderly smoothing his other arm around her small frame under her beasts, hugging her to him, his fingers sunk down again and agonizingly-wonderful, pulled up, squeezing the velvety bud that was her clitoris between his fingers over and over, again and again he did this, receiving soft moans from her each time as a reward.

His motions grew faster and each time she tensed her thighs harder together, panting more heavily and moaning softer, heart pounding furiously. What was her mind was gone, replaced by greedy wanton desire that didn't know what it wanted or was going to get and did not care, as long as he continued to do what he was doing it was sated. The silky wetness between her legs grew hotter the quicker he rubbed, her thighs squeezing his fingers grudgingly until finally Fuu was begging him to not stop and then to stop, that it as too much and she was, was, he didn't find out. Panting furiously she ripped from him and plummeted to the ground, her pink kimono tousling about her and she turned her head to look up at him, her hair glowing chestnut in the light of the fire, her nude body hidden from his sight. Fuu's large glistening eyes cast on him, glazed over in tears, she laid her head down with a sudden plop in the grass, panting still. Embarrassed she found only by closing her eyes and turning her face opposite from him some relief from what just happened.

Surprised by her reaction he smirked awfully and felt proud for what he caused her to do. He didn't expect her to stay as quiet as he thought she would be experiencing her first orgasm, but the matter of control on her voice so Jin or someone else didn't hear had to be alert in some part of her mind, therefore letting him know she had wanted it. He had wanted her to do that and now he felt that same need swelling heavily between his legs, aching and itching for the same enticement he'd given her.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note : Find out what will be in chapters to come with hints on my profile. This chapter is long but I believe the best so far. And yes, there is a character I threw in that is not part of the (c) Samurai Champloo show, and I hate when other fan fictions do that but I've done my best for people to welcome the additional character and come to like them. And things are not always as you will expect with my writing, I have a taste for twists and outcomes that will shock readers and hope to gain fans for writing to the best of my ability.

**Understanding : **

Doragon - Meaning dragon in Japanese

The color of a mango, for few know - Usually an orange color that looks slightly pink, when pale, appearing a soft flesh toned pink.

**_Currently Revised : Date of revision - March 13, 12:09pm_**

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**Chapter 4**

If What Should Happen Under the Heavens

**1**

Perfectly round and smooth, pale in comparison to the blackened backdrop of the glittering starlit sky that shone no less and many more than a billion stars, none could know how many, but their beauty was ever present just the same as the moon's was as it glimmered with its solemn and shady light down upon Jin and the world in which he lived out his demure existence. The world was beautiful at the present moment. Nothing could shame this night, for it was elegant as much as it was soothing. The breeze was silky as it washed over him tenderly, waking the deep interlocking of the limitless boundaries that contained his thinking and thoughts, memories, feelings, all that was him and would ever be. The worst moment of his life could have happened earlier that day, yet now, by it's beauty, Jin would be healed on a night such as this. What ever it was about cool summer nights and autumn afternoons he would never know, but all those he had witnessed left their memories very alive in his soul. They spoke of laughter and lightheartedness, of warm color and cool tones, fresh scents to lull his nose and numb his mind in a deep joyous splendor. His world here in this moment alone, it was gorgeous just being.

_The god's and spirits, what eyes, hands, and minds they have, for them to create such, I could never do, _Jin thought as his solitude pressed down on him. His loneliness was a revered friend he enjoyed the company of, finding his peace with and it made him feel happy to only have his thoughts entertain him without the interruption of his companions. Jin thought it funny that, when he most wanted away from Fuu and Mugen, his thoughts concentrated on them. So even when away, he was with them in a sense. He had friends, even if they pissed him off most the time, and it really wasn't that they angered him, but annoyed him. If all their journey had been up to him things would definitely have gone different. Clear thinking and a good sense of direction would probably have shortened their journey, two things of which he obtained except that his company didn't care to listen or pay attention to. And he was just fine with that.

The samurai who smelt of sunflowers, the mysterious man whom Fuu desired to find; interested him greatly. Given a good sense of intuition, Jin thought the samurai no doubt had known Fuu, shared a mental bond with her near to a physical level, that he guessed Fuu knew this man on a personal level. A brother? Not possibly a lover, or perhaps a man who had been betrothed to her and run out just when the two should have been married. Except it was Fuu, and he knew little of her background. For one thing, she was too trusting of people, men alone. And maybe that was because she was naive at her age alone. She in many ways was a complete mystery that he hoped in the future could understand.

And what did Mugen matter? Jin and him were mutual enemies and knew only the short of friendship foe's shared. That too comforted him greatly, for in truth your closest enemy, while also being your greatest threat was very loyal in many ways. Mugen proved this already, having this great need to be the one to see to Jin's death, his raw determination on that proved a safeguard for him, and not that Jin needed that. To shame to even think that, yet he did, and to amend it, He was the same for Mugen.

All his pondering awakened his senses, he could hear the wind caressing the grass and leaves of the distant trees as they shivered like one large symphony playing the same note, growing loud and quiet, so peaceful, thought Jin. The beach which they had arrived at by late noon he had traveled down some distance, a good seven minute walk. The slender gulf of beach that dipped into the land curved further in the more south he went, walking with no destination along the water's edge, listening to the lulling waves washing in and out with it's cool-crisp song, refreshing the land. The place he decided to stop at was where a tiny and nearly enclosed lagoon pulled in, coating the forest edge with a good three yards width of beach. The many sounds of various nocturnal birds sounded softly beyond him in the labyrinth of greenery. He sat on the beach and laid back in the sand, staring up at the sky and released a great tide of his thoughts to clash into one another and sweep over his mind so that he might sort himself out.

His male urging still swelled tight but he didn't feel the need to tend to that right now and still. And while the world sang it's many comforting lullabies of night, another noise caught his attention. At first Jin ignored it, an animal lurking in the under brush close by, he thought. Then the thrashing of leaves and solid thumps of heavy footing frantically making way through the forest. When calm had been him a strange panicking alarm went off causing his heart the quicken it's pace. He bolted up right from the sand, giving no time for the tiny glittering ocean gravel to just fall but be tossed up with his motion and spit forward into the water, causing a light sprinkling sound as the sand pelted the water's surface. Alerted that it maybe was someone watching, he gathered himself and stood, looking into the darkness, the moon giving no favors to provide light into the vegetation.

The footsteps grew louder, two human feet, he concluded quick, coming dead on. Who ever they were was running as fast as their legs could carry them. He soon could hear the sharp rasps of their uneven breathing, thick huffs forced in and out of their lungs as they frantically made way, running blind through the woods. He braced himself when the steps finally entered and a figure in silhouette displaced it's self from the blackened forest, plopping heavily through the sand of the beach. Jin saw the slowed movements, their sandals seeping into the sand and slowing them down and before they could even gather where they were going and in which direction, Jin found himself being clashed into like a wall. He stood his ground and a youthful, pale face with red lips and thick lashed eyes peered up at him in what one would call a look of entire horror. The woman fell back as she rebound off of Jin, doing her best to gain footing as she stumbled back uneasily and finally made impact with the ground, harshly slamming her rear into the sandy earth. Her breathing was rugged and as if Jin were out to get her the same as those whom she was running from, she speedily turned over, scrambled to her feet and across the way, darting past him while trailing the line of the water in the direction he came from.

Just as before, his ears were aloof to strange sounds combating the forest. Standing stiff with his back facing the ocean, his ebony eyes narrowed more so than he usually kept them, forcing his vision to see into the leafy underbrush where trees thickly lined the edge of the forest from the beach and between them where dense bushes filled in. The forest swayed uneasily as the lady's pursuers crashed through the green, trampling shrubbery and breaking low hanging branches of innocent trees recklessly, hellbent on catching the poor woman. Jin knew all to well what circumstances were about to befall him. For a moment his conscious seized a funny thought. This was so much like Fuu's situations. Giving a soft laugh to the moon he reached down with smooth grace to his sheathed katana, the half of the handle that had been pressed to his side was warm from body heat, the other cool to the touch. His slender fingers hugged to the rough woven ray skin that was swathed tight and intricately around the handle of the sword, pulling it forth from it's sheath, the rasp of metal on metal, crisp and grating, sounding dull in the quiet pervading about him. The lady's pursuers crashed out of the forest, looking at the man bathed in faint light, skin pale and smooth, the moon's light casting back from the spectacles perched on his nose, not allowing them to see his eyes and the cold determination that resided them like a boiling pot of fiery molten metal glowing hot yellow, ready to fall and splash out.

Seven men garbed in worn travelers clothing with swords of every sort, down to stubby blades to long thin ones, to the last two men guarded with bows; all seven poured out of the forest dumbfounded to see Jin standing alone in the cool pale light, his sword glancing the moon's reflection hungrily as he held it out ready for them. "Get him!" Their lead man shouted and they followed his order, rushing to him. The bowmen stayed their ground and knocked arrows his way, which Jin deflected with the precision the likes of which few men may ever have seen. His sword was flicked up and the bladed twisted, the arrows pinged off of his katana and the party closed in on him, blocking their bowmen, of which Jin had planned for, expecting those first two arrows and the rest of the men to pin him against the shore, and that simply could not be allowed.

Like starved wolves they rushed in and in the last few feet of space between them pouncing with their swords, leaving open many vulnerable places which Jin cut into ever so swift, cleaving four of the men too easily. Cool focus settled into his blood, letting him know he had the upper hand and he stepped over the bodies lain grievously strewn on the beach and partially in the waters, dark blood appearing black in the night air, washed into the ocean like ink in a fresh jar of water, drifting and mixing in veins of distorted smokey wisps, tarnishing and sating the thirsty sand. Now one man whom wielded a sword was left standing, the bowmen nowhere to be seen but clearly in waiting as solemn arrows darted through the air and pelted the sand inaccurately. Where ever they were hiding in the forest they didn't have a clear shot and probably would become too afraid to shoot any longer if he was engaged with their last swordsman, scared they would hit him instead of Jin.

Keeping that knowledge in mind, Jin strode forth elegantly, midnight blue cloth of his kimono billowing wildly in the air, pressing to the form of his figure with him rushing to the man who followed suit and was coming his way with no less speed. Their lead man, the one who was leading the party after the girl, the one in charge to Jin's knowledge and that wasn't hard to figure out, considering he gave them the orders to attack in the first place, Jin understood this was the guy he needed to eliminate. The bowmen would definitely engage no more until the two were distanced enough that they could chance a shot in clear range that their leader wasn't in and wouldn't be endangered. His opponent charged on steady feet, taking long loose steps, his face was long, nose thin, skin nearly as pale of Jin's and hair black, smooth and long, held back by a band tied around his head. The two foes were very much alike except that, while Jin held his youth by twenty years of age, it was clearly obvious the other had ten years on him, although still suave in appearance while adorned in clothes fit for a poor farmer.

Faces, they always flashed first in his eyes, the last thing you saw before the clashing of your blade against the enemies. He had to look and see if they shared his same cold determination, although most times he found fright in the eyes of his foe's, a factor that bothered him greatly because Jin knew, a look such as that in his opponents eyes meant he was destined victorious and part of him felt unfair after winning, cause he already knew the outcome. A face and it's simple read emotion was like looking in a glass ball and foreseeing victory or loss and sometimes both if one could believe that. _A man never wants to__ kill, even when he has no choice, there is a part of his soul that cries when severing a life from this world_, Jin thought as his counterpart swam up to him and tossed his blade out, slashing horizontally across his belly. Jin pulled back, the sound of his enemies sword swishing through the air pierced his ears oddly, and in what was only a fourth of a second his body reacted by instinct: leaned back to miss the blow, knees bending, feet grounding and arm curling back and furiously whipping up, clashing into the man's sword with fiery speed that left the air hot.

His enemy was swift and parried his blow aside like it was a mere fly buzzing about. This man's face read arrogance and fearlessness, two things that led Jin to know, that he wasn't an ordinary swordsman, but that slight conceded look he carried would ruin this victory although he'd put of a hell of a fight. Both of them parted with a single step back each, swinging opposite arms with swords meeting dead between them, clashing loudly and rasping as the metal of each blade grated against the other like lightening. They both spun around and found themselves faced with one another again, swords haling but Jin found a different tactic, one that was unusual to his fighting regimen, not even considered in bushido. Instead of letting the weapon be only an extension of his arm he whirled around and put his whole body into the movement of his blade, sending with it his body's momentum and acceleration.

His sword flickered the moons dancing rays of light, flashing across the glass lenses of his spectacles, his hair was now torn loose from the tidy pony-tail it had been bound into, falling freely about his face and curtaining it, pouring down over his cheeks in silky black waves that grew untamed and absolutely wild with his motion as his katana cut through the air, the moment had been slowed, and Jin entered the secret world of which only a warrior knew, the moment before defeat; when you could hear your own breath and heartbeat fluttering slowly as time seemed to halt to keep afoot the moment where critical events were about to take place, and either you or your enemies life would forever be changed and forgotten among the countless time-line of history, but to whom it mattered was the victor, except it was different this time. Jin's actions were swift yes, decisive? Absolutely. This moment in time frozen to only the those involved in the action began to speed, time was catching up it seemed and his sword, swinging through the air, slicing so fast he could hear wind haling off it and onto his foe, bombarded into the man's thrown up blade, an attempt to combat Jin's sword away which proved a bad idea.

This stranger who was foolish enough to oppose the ronin Jin was indeed a fool and so knew it the exact second before Jin's blade crashed into his own. Jin's own energy coursed through his arm and through that to his sword and unto the stranger with hair bound back in a headband. He felt the riveting pulses and then violent vibrations and yelped in a course voice that made the forest howl in protest and hair rise up on the back of Jin's neck. The man dropped his blade unable to hold it any longer, his bones from his wrist to his elbow were shattered. Jin relaxed his entire body the instant the stranger cried out in agony and dropped to his knees, gasping and howling at Jin.

Gazing down at him, Jin's hair swept back and forth monotonously and he delicately reached up, pointing a finger and pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "Why is it your chasing that woman?" he asked without the sound of gasping for breath, to skilled and trained to be worn out by such a minuscule duel. His tone was so smooth and calm, truly showing how stoic Jin really was. The stranger gritted his teeth and winced as two arrows flew past him and impaled the sand around Jin's feet. "I would stop them if I were you, it's only going to lead me to kill you if they continue to shoot at me."

Groaning he tossed his face back to the woods, unseeing his men and bade them to hold their bows. Grimacing he looked back at Jin, speaking in thick groans, "Fuck this hurts! Samurai do not use chi! . . . The woman belongs to me," he half mumbled after a contorted stream of heated jibberish.

_Chi? I suppose samurai do not, in this case you gave me no choice to resort to it, _Jin said within thought and the woman's image flashed in his mind. "How so?"

"Her husband, he could, he could not afford his last loss at the dice tables, so rightfully she, she belongs to me, who he lost too," he said so simply as if that justified everything.

Jin was not amused at how well he contained his pain by the pretty answer he gave him. "Now you have lost to me. I can take your life, or you can let her go. What would you do?"

The man's eyes brightened. He was scared to death this samurai in blue was going to do away with him, but considering his words, there possibly was hope after all and it didn't take long for him to find an answer. "Have her, she is all yours."

"I do not want the woman, she is not property to give away. Let her return to her husband and he be debt free to you."

"Fine then, as you wish, it's done."

**2**

Her skin glowed a soft shade of pale mango, but he could see her face no longer as she turned away from him with deep shame in her eyes. Part of him cared that she was ashamed, cared because he caused it, and the greater, more open part of him didn't give a damn. Mugen gazed down her, his fingers still wet and drying fast enough that they were now becoming stickily dry. He hated that feeling and had more to preoccupy himself at the current time that it didn't matter. His body was pulsing blood forcefully and he could feel it throbbing through his limbs and fingers, and a few other places which was quite visibly apparent. "Oh get over it," he called down to her. His voice came out of nowhere and both his choice of words and sound made her body jerk and jump gently. Looking down at her he couldn't tell if this conversation was going to go any further, didn't seem like it, but Fuu had a big mouth and would say something . . . hopefully, cause he felt pretty fucking awkward and was not taking well to her making him feel that way. And dammit! She was making him feel all sorts of things he wasn't accustomed to her pressuring his emotional pea-sized section of brain with, not that his brain was small, just the part of it that let him feel things and respond with a reasonable reaction. Brash and cocky, those are what took up the greater portion of his mind, except that now, he didn't know if that was so, disturbing him greatly enough that for the very first time in his 19 years, Mugen could not think of a correct way to respond.

Awkwardly he reached up with a thin arm and itched his scalp nervously, "I-ja," a sigh escaped him. "Well fuck," he said in a calmly amused way that Fuu exhaled a giggle at, she couldn't help it. He sounded so, so baffled and sounded like he knew he was and just didn't know what to say next, and it was all true. They both new it and amazingly enough, it relieved tension between them.

Fuu felt a little bit better that he felt the same as she did right then, finding courage enough to force herself up from the cooled grass and twist around to look up at him. It was weird of course, he just had touched her in places only she was supposed to know about and for gods sake, it was Mugen! It was Mugen! He had provoked sounds and feelings, and many other things from her that did not want to be talked or thought about, as Fuu thought of it. This strange air between them was choking that chance. "I, I feel really stupid right now," she said tiredly, purposely focusing on the ground to avoid him.

He smirked and tittered, gaining that cocky demeanor back, "Were you feeling stupid when I was-"

Great, he just had to say it, had to ruin the moment that she thought some invisible do-gooder had come and patched up with a thick, smothering band-aid, but no, of course he had to rip it off and the healing flesh along with it and assert his two sense in, like always. "Don't even say it!" she barked wildly, fist clenching her kimono, which by the way, had yet to be properly closed, thankfully that invisible do-gooder had kept it over parts of her she needed not be seen right now, especially by the guy looming over her with his tool peeking out against his shorts as if to say hey to world in a seemingly discreet way that made her feel dirty.

It was back, he was back in check, all it took was that annoying part of him that Fuu appeared to hate so much for to Mugen gain leverage on himself. He felt in the right place and in the right mind to deal with the situation which he didn't want to call quits on just yet. The girl with doe eyes had no chance to capture the moment before he was coming down fast, fluidly coming to his knees and still looming over her, though now, his silver hues beheld of look of passion and heart stopping empathy to deal with what needed to be dealt with. Again her heart convulsed, causing a minor throbbing in her temples that she did not even feel cause his gaze boring into her. She leaned back to peer up at him with strange wonder, eyes glossed over and nervously shifting the more he leaned over and into her, where there was hardly any space between the two, the fire next to them providing the only light and forgotten of in its glorious hot comfort, for the fire growing in it's makers was so much greater.

Mugen wasn't playing games anymore, he no longer knew himself and wasn't going to look back to hear his conscience interfere. Neither of them had time to count when Mugen fell into her and Fuu gave way, falling back into the grass with only her elbows holding her up. His lips smothered hers hungrily and for the first time in all truth, she engaged in a kiss that both wanted at the same time. His tongue invaded her mouth and she combated it with her own, to the vagrants surprise, letting him know she was just as hungry for this as he was and no more chances would be given to say no, it was unnecessary. The world about them lost its existence and only they were in being, all else in the universe gone along with time. Great huffs of air pushed out of their noses as each hungrily tore at the others mouth with lush, moistened lips to which neither knew who's saliva was who's anymore, the tastes of each others mouths combined to form a flavor with no description except for heated passion.

Engrossed in their kiss Fuu's hands moved on their own, placing themselves on his cheeks and she regretted doing that at first when her back pressed into the ground with his added weight. His lips peeled from hers and with eyes resting shut his hands grasped hers, hot and sweaty, comforting her cold nervous fingers when his laced hers and his lips trailed down her chin and neck quickly, giving soft kisses. Panting softly she peeked through hooded lids at him, his face was so calm and beautiful. Hard to believe in a sense for there was nothing about him she ever had found attractive before, even when considering his looks in the past. Of course he was beautiful, with eyes calmly shut, his expression relaxed, dark tawny skin smooth and damaged by the sun and puberty long past, which she didn't care if it was, it was beautiful to her, so close that she noted his every detail. Her heart fluttered insanely as she watched his lips press to her pale flesh and give tedious sucking kisses that made her tremble and tense her thighs as quakes of aching, needy pleasure ebbed from between her legs throughout her entire body.

**3 **

"I will," Jin said smoothly and twirled around gracefully without even trying to be. The man who's arm he'd shattered remained where he was on his knees in the sand, his last two men, the one's with bows fled from hiding and scurried to him quickly, assessing the damage done to their leader. Teeth grating, he stared into Jin's backside with a look of complete disgust, hatred, and revenge, his brows drawn together to complete his snarl. Without a word he let loose his ruined arm and signaled for Jin to be shot. The bowmen grasped their bows and pointed his way, the creaking of their bow strings sounded in Jin's ears and he whirled around with blazon speed, the arrows flying his way. Two long shafts sliced through the air effortlessly, deadly tips destined for his heart. Jin's sword had already been sheathed yet it wasn't when he had whirled around, with hands that held speed that frightened the god's and spirits both, his blade glinted arrays of the moons light, his spectacles glimmering, hair and clothing tossed and frayed with his lightening bolt movements. He exuded the elegance of a skilled warrior, and it was masterfully beautiful every action he took although the deaths that would follow would not be pretty in the least. One! Two! He shifted his iridescent silver blade quickly left with a curving motion of his arm so to fling the arrow back, then in what looked to go without any movement, as if he magically appeared slightly more right with his blade curving and slinging back the other arrow, both of which cast back at those whom had sent them flying and thudded into their bodies, death the outcome. Both the bowmen collapsed into the sandy beach, blood pooling around their leader left in udder shock, witnessing such astonishing skill.

To Jin, it was nothing more than another needless kill that had to be done in order to keep his own life going. He made nothing of it and once more turned on his heels, sheathing his sword away smoothly and left the man to himself.

**4**

Why did life have to be so complicated? Every time things started to settle, chaos happened to tip the balance of reality and her sanity. Aikyo was far from home, both she and her husband were travelers here in the recent past few months, having to pick up and leave every time the man who she had been happy with once, owed more money than he could pay. He slowly over time became a drunk and overly avid gambler. It had started with nightly trips to the brothels, which hurt her more deeply than anyone actually knew, and even worse when he came home, and for the first few weeks, he was relatively sober, gradually stepping it up to where he came in stumbling and smelling of other women and their oily rank perfumes with is own added scent of musky dry liquors. Those disgusting, stomach wrenching smells were ingrained in her mind in the place she stored memories that left her feeling out of sorts and ashamed, but mostly wounded in the heart.

Now for a week, captured by ill company who her husband was deeply in debt to, Aikyo found the days hellish. This time she wouldn't go back to him, running for her life from not only her husband but Konichi. Her husband posed false promises with his addictions that she knew deep down was a sickness he wouldn't easily overcome. Konichi, the man he owed great amounts of money too, wasn't any better. At first she believed being taken away from her husband would be a relief, but soon figured out that the grass wasn't that much greener on the other side. She was tossed into brothels by Konichi's pathetic 14 man gang that dubbed themselves the name Doragon.

When she refused brothel duty and had been beaten, the only person who gave her sympathy had been Konichi and it wasn't much to count for. As far as he concerned her, she was a means of possible profit, whether that be selling her out to strange men who would pay a few lousy yen for a night, or forcing her to serve his close yakuza buddies hand and foot. That is when things had taken a wild turn as Konichi started taking more interest in her than what she wanted.

Regret for all this weighed heavily upon her heart as she raced to freedom through the forest in the darkened hours of night. Running as fast as her tired legs would allow. The man she bumped into and fled from loomed on her thoughts like a thundercloud over a flooded village. They were after her, chasing her and she just knew her legs couldn't last forever. Every time her feet took a step she could almost feel them reaching out for her and would at some point pull her into their grasp and Aikyo would never escape again, forever a servant of some ill purpose.

That last guy could have caught her if he wanted, having pummeled into him and knocked herself down to the ground, his face was stuck in her thoughts; pale skin, refined but narrow features and those odd things standing in front of his eyes. He didn't look like the one's who were after her but she wouldn't chance escaping for anything. Aikyo haphazardly skittered alongside the beach touching close to the ocean's cool waters, all the calm sounds of the world interrupted by her heavy clopping sandals that made running on this sort of terrain terribly difficult. Those wooden sandals would be her downfall and she cursed every single time they stood in her way from distancing herself from Konichi's men. And following near the beach wasn't a very bright idea, leaving her in the open and exposed, and if anyone was tailing her, there was nowhere to run but into the ocean to drown, if she was that lucky.

Looking to her left the ocean stood rippling with waves and further to her right was the darkened wall of the forest where creatures gurgled noises and everything seemed swallowed in never ending blackness. Chancing everything she veered left and darted toward the tree line, finding her face nearly crashing in sand and grass where the land sloped up, stumbling twice cause those damned shoes. _To hell with you!_ Aikyo gritted her teeth and frantically kicked off both shoes and leaped to further pace herself, bare feet touching down into the cold cushioning grass, striding into the forest when all was lost so unexpectedly just as she reached the edge of brush where the dark woods began.

In all the places in all the world, right here, growing thick and convoluted was thorned vines, sitting happily tangled hundreds of feet long-way, walling off the start of the brush just before the lining of trees. Her first step had been secure until the other foot fell and landed in spiny aching jolts of pain forced by the hidden thorny vegetation. She stumbled wincing in pain and tried jump away but there was more and more and she couldn't seem to get away from it, piercing her bare feet uncaring and finally she fell, in all of it. Panic screamed inside of her mind and Aikyo had to stop herself and freeze the moment to peer back from the direction she originally came from and to her surprise, there was no one. Had they given up? Lost track? Perhaps fallen to the same complication she was dealing with at the present moment? Aikyo didn't know and didn't care, she had to get moving and get the hell out of there.

The problem was, she was stuck and unable to see where the vines were to get out without being pricked to death. Worse then thorns on rosebushes, these vines scratches and pokes itched horribly. Afraid to move anymore the best thing she could think of was hunker down as low as possible to the ground and hope to gods and spirits both she wasn't seen.

**5**

Down the beach where the world was once again quiet and appearing lifeless, Jin traveled in his lonesome. The moon might have winked at him but he didn't notice, only took part in the night's splendor by keeping his eyes in the distance, searching for the woman to tell her of her freedom. While Jin knew he had defeated that man, he knew this woman was not free at all. The only way he saw that happening was if he stuck around to take note of things and his life right now centered around Fuu and her mission for this allusive sunflower samurai. More importantly, he didn't think it important to evade this strangers possible captors. Sighing he continued his brisk walk, eyes lurking back and forth in the open stretch of land between water and forest. He concluded that if she had ran into the woods, she would simply have to continue on without the news he carried.

Halfway the distance from where his companions camp was, a good half mile at most, he stopped, feeling a strangeness reach out to his senses, as if his subconscious new something he did not. And sure enough it's message pulled through, it wasn't science really, he could see the woman plain as day, well close enough with the moons light casting down so that he could make out the humped shape sitting near the forest. Had she given up, he wondered. Not likely, but why had she stopped if when before the woman clearly was frantic to escape.

Aikyo saw that man, watched him merge from the line of the forest blocking her view of the coast further down. When she first saw the silhouetted figure her heart skipped a beat and she wanted to scream and disappear but it wouldn't happen, couldn't, and she felt so vulnerable tears welled in her eyes. She was done for, yet when the figure was in close enough range so that she could decipher who it was, or rather that it was that man, who now was coming her way with slow patience, relief numbed her. He wasn't out to capture her and she clearly knew by his appearance. Jin's hair loose and flowing down his back and over his shoulders, his clothing somewhat out of sorts. Konichi and his men were dead or had ran from this man who might just have saved her.

Jin came her way, his eyes focused on her, his glossy black hues both were deep and narrowed, peering past the glass frames hanging on his nose. He was more pale than she, his skin glowed white, like that of the moon and he showed no sign of aggression. Aikyo's breath sucked in when he stopped at the edge of the vinery, obviously able to see it and maybe cause those glass things on his face. Still afraid her assumptions were wrong, she hunkered down lower, gazing at him with wide frightened eyes, Jin thought she looked like a threatened rabbit and swallowed with guilt, his silent nature not always as comfortable to others as he wished it would be. "You are free, do return to the whereabouts you come from, otherwise you will belong to him again."

Aikyo gasped. Freedom? She didn't plan on returning to where she came from, or her husband or Konichi. Her thoughts suddenly stormed and as the man turned his back to her she stood up, wearily half-watching down, although still unable to see the vines, "Wait! I am free?"

Her voice was extremely soft and lilting, very lady-like indeed, he thought, and quite timid by tone. Jin paused his steps and looked back over his shoulder, "The man who leads the chase against you, the one who says you belong to him, he is still alive but wounded. I do not suggest you return where he may be found."

"Then where do you suggest I go," she called out to him, now unsure of herself. Where dread should not have come to torture her thoughts, it did. There was nowhere she had to go, Konichi's gang was nomadic, always on the move. She couldn't predict where he would be forever. The itching from the scrapes and punctures the vines had gifted her with was itching something unbearable. She stammered resisting the urge and took a step forward, hopeful her footing wouldn't betray her. Luck never was with her and both Jin and herself understood that at the same time. He watched her stumble and wince, coming close to tipping over into the unforgiving plant life. He watched without a word and just the same, stepped into the vines carefully, making way to her without trouble.

Aikyo paused watching him, growing aware of danger that might come with him getting too close and as soon as he had scooped her up, Aikyo went into the panic mode. No! It had been a trick! Why and how could she had fallen for this?! The gods hated her surely. She slapped and kicked, but Jin wouldn't give up until they were out of the vines and when they were she finally drew up the courage to toss a fist causing him to loose his footing and tip back, with her added weight on him he couldn't catch balance and down to the ground they crashed. She wasn't done yet, it would not end this way, she'd fight him to the death so help her!

The woman was feisty but in truth was no match for him even when he was pinned to the ground. The best option he had was to lay still and let her get over it. He wasn't bent on capturing her. By the time the woman figured it out she slapped him four times already and he took it like a good sport. Panting, Aikyo stopped herself and let her arms fall limp in her lap as she sat on him with his eyes looking up at her blank of emotion. "Say something dammit," she whispered painfully. Jin's lips remained pressed together and she couldn't contain herself anymore, now coughing softly and breaking down to tears that flooded down her soft pale cheeks. It almost seemed like Jin didn't even notice the dramatic change in her disposition, watching her sit straddled on him as he lay in the cold grass, her tears disappearing into the dark kimono she wore.

"I told you the truth," he said. "You are free, but do not return home or go in the same direction."

"I, I don't know," she whispered so low he almost didn't hear. Sucking in a quick breath she finished, "where to go."

He wanted to sigh and say that it would be alright, yet he could not guarantee her that and would not chance becoming a liar. Like the many times Fuu was a victim of kidnaping and capture, he knew all too well what she most likely had been through, wanting to console her, yet there was that wall blocking off the ability to empathize, painting himself cold and unmoved by human need and feeling. His only choice was to sit up and pull her into his lap which felt extremely odd and made the circumstance more awkward than it already was. Fuu, unlike this woman, had Mugen and himself to keep her safe and get her out of trouble. Jin realized that as if it were new to him and sighed. "Stay with me until you find a suitable place to live."

Aikyo's breath hitched as his stomach tensed and firmed to help him to lift up then he drew his legs in and folded them beneath her. She turned away slightly so only her side was pressed to him and could not find it in herself to look at him. "You would do that for me," she asked in a low whisper.

Jin gave her no answer. He remained quiet and held her in his lap with one arm extended and hand grasping his knee so she didn't fall back. She smelt odd to him, like sweet smelling liquor that had been spilled on her clothing several times and left to dry, that and another smell he couldn't make out. A few minutes past with Aikyo silently crying, reduced to the one simple emotion of hurt that effected every single person differently. She was thankful that he intervened, but something told her her troubles were not yet over by a long shot and it discomforted this moment she should have been feeling okay.

No sense could be extracted from the foreboding she felt and it made her laugh out loud, meeting Jin's ears as a sobbing giggle from one who didn't see hope in the world or for themselves. "Why," he paused almost about to drop the rest, "do you laugh?"

Aikyo reached up smearing her whole hand across half her face from underneath her eye and down her cheek, wiping away tears as her eyes veered right and found him looking down on her, his face sprinkled with the shade of leaves from the trees and speckles of moonlight peeking through the forest standing tall before them and the brush and vines. "I don't know," she said studying him. His eyes were so dark behind those transparent lenses, liquid black and ever observant, as if beaming into the core of her soul. Aikyo quickly glanced away and back when he emitted a small huff of laughter and had to laugh again for it. "Thank you so much."

Jin nodded as welcome while observing her close up, the shadow of the trees unable to reach her, unable to hide her features from his view. She was extraordinarily beautiful, no doubt why that guy had wanted her for his own. She had a heart-shaped face with porcelain skin and large angular eyes that glistened dark brown and lips that were naturally red. This woman looked like one of the geisha's naturally without any rouge or paint to make her pretty. How a woman with her looks had fallen into the position she was, baffled him. Beautiful women were not regarded unkindly, more so favored and easily finding higher status without effort, he thought.

**6**

Mugen's fingers squeezed Fuu's tight as they were laced with her own, pushing the backs of her hands into the ground on either side of her shoulders, his weight heavy upon her but she did not care. His gentle kisses made up for it, that was up to the moment he pulled away and the warmth that had been shared between them was blown away by cool air that left her shivering. His thin fingers unlocked from hers and the sweat permitted by them left between each of their fingers clammy. Mugen didn't sit up but stood up over her on hands and knees, something strange dancing in his eyes. Fuu could not find any words that were right to say with him looming over her and staring down, instead she bit her lower lip and looked away and as she had, he finally spoke.

"Damn," he muttered in a smooth, cocky tone and smiled flashing his teeth. Her eyes timidly looked his way, finding him scaling her body below him, taking in the seductive image of her lain messily in the grass with her kimono parted open and torso exposed to him as if she'd been half ravished, which by his judgment, hadn't been the case, not yet. He never had seen this side of her, had never seen her nude body before. She was average with a slender body and common sized breasts. More pros was that her skin was soft and blemish free, glowing in the firelight, her nipples a soft pink that went well with her pale skin and her body shape wasn't bad at all, and he admitted only to himself that she had a pretty face to go along with it. He watched her eyes grow unsteady, like she knew he was judging her and afraid of what he thought, becoming very conscious of her worst details, which he didn't see any. Or maybe it was what she thought he might do next, and that was something to worry about.

Mugen wasn't going to voice it or ask, he would do it shamelessly. Her eyes went fully open when he sat up, shaking away the grass that stuck on his palms. He rose up on his knees and reached down tugging at her obi and that was when he stopped, his fingers still gripping the thick pink fabric. Reaching fast she grabbed for her obi instinctively, "No."

An annoyed huff spilled out of his throat. "Why not," he managed to whisper back tenderly, hoping to calm her. Ignoring her plea he tugged again and she tugged back while coming to sit up, almost face to face with him. "C'mon, just let me look, okay."

Her face was lite deep red and her eyes focusing on him so intently it made him feel out of place. This was very serious and she considered it so and wanted him to understand that, and he did, but didn't care. No man or woman, or anyone had ever got to look down 'there' before and if they had she would be buried somewhere cause the embarrassment would have killed her. Letting Mugen look and see down 'there' would surely cause her to die. If he didn't like what he saw she'd be to ashamed to ever look at him again and he would forever torture her about it. Gripping her obi, Fuu could not allow it to go this far. Things were strange enough with his affection cast at her in a situation that had been like most other times when he was teasing, except that it turned to perversion she gave into and wanted, now thrown into confusion and distrust.

"Fuu?" Mugen waited, watching her become distant with her thinking. Her eyes again focused on him and found a look she had never seen before on his face. His eyes were wide and serious, as if everything between them had been erased and he actually cared, or was this what he was doing in order to trick her into trusting him? He wouldn't betray himself like that just to see her secret places, she knew that and let go of the obi. Keeping his eyes on hers he pulled away at the obi and sat it to the side, eyes still on hers, his hand went to somewhere else she didn't expect and he lost her focus. Her brown hues darted to his hand catching the hem of his shorts and then went back to his eyes as she realized what he was going to do and what all else would follow after. She froze and dread shadowed over her, her heart began racing so fast it literally hurt.

He didn't want to look, although he did want to. Easing his shorts down, Fuu was too afraid and embarrassed to look down and chance seeing what she knew was showing. She began panting heavily and Mugen's own breath noticeably was matching. He knew what he wanted, and being true to himself, said nothing of it. Part of him was afraid to push things to this level. _What if she isn't ready? What if I am wrong? Am I wrong?_ _Gods I want this! _Torn between moral and desire he could not chose which way to go. They were here and already pushing past the usual formalities he and Fuu had. Hell, they were not pushing anymore, he had clearly taken the cold and daring wall he kept up around himself so no one really knew that he actually had human compassion and needs and bombed it to ash. Nothing stood between them and he was afraid that if he did this with her, she wouldn't allow him to resume his natural persona hereafter.

For another matter, what if Jin walked up on this scene? _Fuck, how long has it been_ _since he left,_ he screamed in question within his mind. Jin wouldn't walk up on this scene, he'd avoid it by turning around and never speaking of it, and gods and spirits save him if he wasn't as smart as Mugen was guessing him to be to make those choices. Tossing that dilemma aside he reencountered the first but did not get a chance to solve it for Fuu saved him the trouble by reaching out for his face, her hands pressed to his cheeks and the last he saw of her was with closed eyes and puckered lips. Instinctively he kissed back, letting her take lead as he folded back her kimono and rolled his hips into hers. Fuu's eyes suddenly parted wide and closed, relieved, his hot skin touching to hers, his lower belly pressing to her and what was 'secret' of his burned against her thigh. She knew what it was, expecting it to arrive in another place.


	5. Chapter 5

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Author's Note : Sorry this chapter came in so late, I caught terrible writers block and had some difficulty bouncing back out of it. Hope you guys enjoy it! BTW My profiles default depicts Aikyo how I envision her, because we all have seen Jin, Mugen, and Fuu already.

Note to Readers and Reviewers Who Have Already Read This Chapter :

**CuriousRiz** : Many forms of contraceptives did exist in Feudal Japan, one of the most widely believed used and most debatable was anal sex. If you happened to do a little research on olden Japan would find out that many geisha were actually men, and almost all Kabuki theater actors were males dressed as the women, also playing more elaborate characters. Male homosexuality was very common in Feudal Japan, and anal sex is believed to have been a substitute for many men, although I am not saying just men with men, but housewives, low grade geisha, and courtesans used anal sex to control birthing as well.

There is herbs, and the dead practice of using a particular plant soaked in water until spoiled and placed in the vaginal canal which in little than a weeks time would cause the unborn fetus or seeded egg to be dispelled, but this practice died out cause of the effects it had on later children born to the women who used the plant as a contraceptive. Then there is douching, yes, I said it, douching, washing the uterus out with water though a hose and hide bag, using ordinary water. Almost all courtesans and geisha who worked in brothels used scented water with added ingredients that were supposed to kill out or prevent stds, which was a method proven very effective. And abortion was the most commonly known practice of contraceptive and wasn't frowned on in the least, of course an abortion was done very immediately by a simple process of a 'said' doctor of the time using a simple tool that looked much like a penis, inserting it into the vagina and pushing it gently into the small opening of the womb, breaking the seal of the birth sack, while the tool was hollow and a medicinal liquid was squirted into the womb, cleansing it of the unformed but seeded egg. Now in our time, we consider that abortion, when in truth doctors don't agree that it is, cause the egg is still a egg and the child has not formed at all.

Now, what most, let me be very blunt, "Unpracticed' fan fiction 'writers' don't know, cause they don't research or set a plot, which I have and do, is that brothels were frequently visited by a doctor of sorts who performed and helped brothel workers be free from child birth. That is why, if you read any of the old text, such as the Tale of Genji, the oldest known novel, a memoir written by Japanese court lady, Lady Murasaki, it does tell you that much, and that, many brothel workers who did become pregnant were sometimes cruelly killed by wrongly done abortions, and it wasn't surprising for a brothel worker to die from a safe abortion before a fetus had formed as well.

What most may not realize, is that when I start a story, I invest a lot of time researching the history and culture of the era the story falls into, and lucky for me, I've written a novel that I already had to research the same criteria for the era that Samurai Champloo is set in: Edo era, lasting from 1603 to 1868. I do have a plot for this story, and I do pay attention to every single detail and everything that happens will have a later result, and that is all I'm going to say on that subject.

Premonition, Dream at the end? You'll have to read to find out =P

_**And you guys may be happy to know that this story has inspried me to draw some artwork featuring the characters, which I will figure out how to give the links when the the picture of Mugen and Fuu I'm working right now is done.**_

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**Chapter 5**

Part 2 of chapter 4 If What Should Happen Under the Heavens -

- **May Yet Lay In Dreams**

1

"Konichi is still alive, no?" she asked rhetorically. Aikyo's glistening eyes focused on him, worry lain thick over her thoughts. Why had he not killed him? She wasn't in favor of killing people at random, but the fact that Konichi was still out and about, wounded or not, he'd seek vengeance. He went after her husband for money alone, although part of her conscience knew there was more too it than that. Konichi was the sort of guy who got off on his own indicative power over other people. His gang were runabouts that mercilessly hassled those who couldn't oppose, usually ransacking small villages and making fools of those that governed them in genuine goodness. His, including his men's actions were twisted in least, having tortured men and women, even children and old ones, pushing the limit of their will just to get a laugh and a false sense of power or strength. In the short time Aikyo had been with his gang, she was witness to many such acts. She was driven ill by it, but in the long run saddened. To know a human being could with all the ability of thinking and knowing between right and wrong, go and do something so horrible to another person.

_Evil likes to grab those that are weak, people who will knowingly choose to do the wrong thing, go the wrong paths, it likes to touch them because they are less likely to see what real evil is until they have become it and are too blind to see themself for what they have become: evil_, Aikyo told herself. _We are given a choice; good and bad, what will become of us when we face the gods and spirits and our ancestors, is our decision in those two choices, that will prove our worth to them. _"Thank you for not ending his life," she whispered, settled with her thoughts.

Jin had remained quiet, letting her drain her sorrows out as she wept silently while sitting in his lap, her side pressed to his chest. Something was so familiar about her, about this woman, why? When her tears no longer came they both sat comforted by one another's company, happy to sit and let silence steal time, at peace knowing the world would wait and contain it's hushed existence so they could understand the past to claim the present for themselves. When her heart once fluttered, it now thumped softly, well heard in his keen years. _Konichi was his name . . ._ He did not question why she thanked him, he understood his choice to not relieve that man of his life and knew if she was smart enough, that she too would understand.

"I must return to my company," he voiced softly and turned his chin down to peer at her directly, watching her large eyes fall on him, looking at each other with a certain mutual understanding that neither had felt from another person in what seemed forever. Comfort poured from her brown irises, and forsake the gods if she wasn't beautiful. He had never lain eyes on such a naturally gorgeous being before, perhaps it was just to his eyes but she was in every aspect, speaking of her face. Jin could not fathom why a woman like her was here now, sitting in a tattered kimono, obviously unbathed, when she should have been gracing the halls of the castle in Kyoto or more grand places if there were such. He could see her in thick and colorful layered kimono's with her hair pinned in delicate hair pieces fashioned of intricately carved metals both expensive and foreign, laced with jewels and finery nobles could afford, the exquisite things only riches could obtain.

Aikyo kept her eyes on him, waiting for what he was going to say next but he kept gawking at her as if she was lucid as glass. ". . . You want me to get up," she laughed awkwardly and rose to her feet, scraping her nails up her calf through the length of the kimono, itching in quick motions then straightened out the dirty fabric. Bringing her hand up she combed and folded dark locks of hair behind an ear, gazing down at him as his eyes followed hers and he finally snapped back into reality. Jin leaned forward and rose up lithely. "Hmph," she laughed softly, "You are samurai, no?"

"Yes, I am not," he replied with dull patience. His identity as well as his past was a rough subject to broach, even if she had not intended to dip her fingers into it, the matter of who or what he was, touched the surface of things he wasn't ready to discuss with an old friend, let alone a complete stranger.

Suddenly a gap of distance was forced between them, Aikyo felt this strongly and regretted asking. It was a simple question really, she had the right to ask, given his two swords and resilient demure nature she already understood. Most people came to her as an open book. There was this part of her she hated, a part that gave her the ability to take in the vibes of others and interpret who they were and deeper levels within them that most people were not comfortable discussing about themselves. Call it intuition, it was a skill she mastered effortlessly and unwanting. "I've said something I should not have, no?"

Jin gave her a quizzical look, "Why do you ask things like that? No?"

"Your avoiding my question," she stated, her whole stance quickly changed to confidence mixed with understanding. "It is all right, you do not have to answer it. I only wanted to see if my assumption that you are in fact a samurai was true, even when the signs clearly say I am right. I will suppose you are ronin now, but I will not question why, that is a matter of your own personal affairs. Right?"

What was questioning in his expression escaped out a window, replaced by extreme curiosity. Mugen too would have been left speechless by her words if he were in his place right now, Jin thought. _What a strange woman. _"Right," he replied to kill anymore chatter that might come before he had a chance to silence her with his answer, therefor insinuating that she knew what she was talking about, to leave it at that. As his silence predicted, he said nothing else and stepped onward, taking his leave with to her follow behind. His steps were precise without care, his hair still loose, dripping down his backside with thinner locks catching in the slight wind cast over the land, floating softly.

Aikyo watched him flow past her and looked down to her kimono, reaching inside, past the collar at her breast. "Wait. Here, take this," she said and produced a thin six inch ribbon of rough black fabric. Jin paused and looked back, tentatively reaching for the scrape of cloth, happy to take it to replace the hair-tie he lost during the fight earlier. "Aikyo," she said softly.

He stopped himself from turning back the direction they were headed, "What?"

"My name, it is Aikyo."

His fingers wound over the strip of cloth and he stared for a moment, "Jin."

She smiled and nodded tenderly, following his lead.

2

Mugen's breaths were so rough it made Fuu nervous. When their lips parted, both of them reluctant to draw back the touch, he exhaled, his hot breath whooshing out against her neck, causing perspiration and humidity on her skin. Mugen was daring in many ways, and not exactly the type to think before doing, so to put it mildly, yet here he was, his body ready, she was willing, and his conscience throwing a tantrum that he was desperately trying to ignore. He was scared as hell. Everything invisible in the universe screamed for him to just do it, just make the move and break the moment so they could continue, but everything visible was stopping him.

"Fuu," he breathed out gruffly, small pants pushing past his lips as he kept his eyes resting shut and relaxed his cheek against her neck. Fuu was hushed by the situation, his body hot against hers, and if not for his gi between them, she would have been sweating like a pig with his kin pressing to her own. Too comfortable to answer she was quiet, with his slender waist hugged between her thighs, the unseen places that clothing once covered touching provocatively, bodies pressed as if attempting to combine to form one whole. "Do you want this," he asked ruggedly. She bit her lip and stayed quiet.

He shifted and just when she thought it was going to happen he kept moving away, sitting up and peering down at her, then his gaze trailed down. She was beginning to hate this, it was torture, and made worse every time he would move away, the air cold compared the heat they shared, causing her to shiver. Alert to his watching eyes she sprung up and tossed her hands between her legs, covering herself. It was too late, he had saw but neither of them felt too awkward about it. "What," she demanded. Mugen groaned and cursed under his breath. Panic burned her nerves as she watched him mutter, his eyes averting from her purposely "What! I do, I want it," she blurted out and grew very aware to her own words, blushing more red than ripened summer apples.

"I can't do this, not right now. Jin's going to be back anyways," he said and Fuu realized the whole time he had sat up his 'thing' was out in plain view, even more surprising she hadn't noticed or saw it, that was until he pulled up his shorts. She tossed her sight away from it on impulse, and now she understood why he was constantly bragging about it, the thing was as large if not larger than her forearm.

"What do you mean _anyways_, what is the other reason?"

"Forget this happened," he said and recoiled from her, suddenly gone from her view. Mugen walked away so he did not have to assess the issue. Talking about it would only achieve making him mad. He wanted this, he wanted to lay with Fuu, wanted to continue kissing her, and it was what he realized that kept him from her. He didn't love her for one, two, he wasn't ready for her to be thrown into the chaotic upheaval of a sexual relationship with him, not only that but a relationship in general, and three, she was not ready. And yes, there was more to it than that, the part he wanted to hide and would not speak of, because it was selfish. Mugen wasn't ready for her because she had a big mouth and a pushy way of going about things. If he was eying another girl, she would have a fit, that alone said she would always be mad at him for something. They would argue nonstop, day and night, to busy to see the side of each other that was worth looking at and caring for. Regardless of whether he was or was not looking at another women, if he was involved with Fuu, she would always be suspicious of him for it. Then the list seemed to roll out further. His dignity was a stake. All the while he maintained his facade of distastes for her, he could not let that falter. Jin knowing did not matter. That uncaring hard love he handed out to everyone helped him keep his cool, that was not worth losing to Fuu. He was selfish, but there were many good reasons to be.

It would never work out.

She let him kiss her, let him touch her, and goad her into this scrambled game of cards and she had lost the game as if he had cheated the whole time. It was unfair of him! Jerking her kimono shut and holding it together in a tightly knotted fist, Fuu flew up from the ground and chased after him. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

Mugen stopped, his jaw so tight he was lucky his teeth didn't shatter like glass. "Go back Fuu," he snarled viciously then continued forward, walking with hardened steps.

Fuu was left standing stiff in the shadows, far enough from the fire that its light couldn't reach her. His tone scared her at first. "Hey!" She wasn't done, this wouldn't be over so easily, she thought grudgingly and chased after him. Catching up to him, he slowed down, staring in the distance at nothing except for his thoughts that were a mixed blur. Fuu was afraid to say anything and became highly aware that pushing things any more than they had been could result in bodily harm to her. He wasn't above that. He knew she was there, walking beside him and now was afraid to stop, afraid to face her because he couldn't trust himself. They walked a good distance, several minutes passed, Mugen paced up to see if he could lose her, thinking to just break out into a dead run, hoping she wouldn't catch up, thinking and wishing she might fall in a hole or something, just so he could be alone.

10 minutes, fifteen, twenty. Fuu found some courage, having known what she was going to do and say, lacking the courage to say it earlier on.

Mugen flinched as a tug on his gi forced him to stop and he actually chanced looking back at Fuu, catching and holding her bewildered gaze. "Is it because I'm not pretty enough?" She asked him in such a curiously hurt tone.

A hard expression was painted on his face and those words washed it away. His eyes shifted back and forth nervously as he peered at her unsure of himself once more. That wasn't it at all. She was wrong if she thought that. Not one time had he considered stopping for the way she looked, he admired that about her, not openly, but in that moment he was looking down at her on all fours, there was nothing he would have said that wasn't pretty about her. Her fingers were curled in the red fabric of his gi, appearing a hushed shade of burgundy in the moon's light, her other hand holding her kimono shut. Eyes stuck on her, he turned into her, lifting his arm so her hand was pulled from his sleeve and he caught it, fingers intertwining fingers, hers and his. His other hand blindly reached for her fist, unraveling the clenched fingers wound in the soft fabric of her clothing, all the while his eyes fixated on hers.

Fuu forgot what breathing was until it was begging to be known and taken back in by her lungs. Nightly shadows cast over them with the moon watching without judgment, his eyes were dark, his skin dark, but she could tell his features apart, drowning herself in the bottomless sea of his gaze, where she kept sinking down and didn't care if anyone would save her because he was there with her. The world lost its meaning to them who were enveloped in one another's smothering aura. Mugen's fingers gently unfolded her own and took them up, holding her hand, her kimono fell loose and open, the two sides shifting slightly as the wind passed. Fuu forgot how cold the breeze was, it too lost it's meaning.

The ocean lay hundreds of feet away, the grassy hills that rolled up to the forest became a place of enclosure and secrets for Fuu and Mugen. Her hands in his own, he pulled her down, lowering to the ground slowly. She came down to her knees with him and felt his fingers free from hers, watching him quickly tear off his sword harnessed on his back then his gi and undershirt, lifting it over his head and tossing it to the side calmly. Her heart jerked involuntarily, jarring in motion as she realized what he was doing. Like when getting a second look, you might come across details you didn't see the first time you looked, Fuu felt that way knowing what he was going to do, a heaviness bore down on her soul. He wasn't going to stop this time.

Mugen looked down at her as she stood on two knees the same as him, he noticed her chest rising and falling fast, sharp breaths escaping her mouth. When his sight captured her face, it was her eyes that stole him away. She was no longer looking at his face but his chest, watching it rise and fall roughly in darker contrast compared to her own pale shade of skin. None different than the other, reduced to the same wants and needs at the same time, sharing the same air and soon more than that. Her eyes caught his when he leaned to her, both hands coming up to her shoulders and sliding back her kimono which gave way when she volunteered to lift her arms just slightly and let it fall from her thin figure, puddling in a raveled mess on her calves and feet in the grass behind her. Mugen stopped, taking for himself the smallest slice of reality available to seize the moment and look at her nude body, pale, half of it glowing in the moon light, the other side cast in darkness, helping accentuate the curve of her breast and hip down to her high.

Fuu flinched as his hand came up, plucking free the hair-sticks that kept her hair tidy and pulled up. Dark luminous locks of silken brown hair cascaded down and kissed her arms. Anxious that he was taking his time, panic choked her thoughts when that same hand of his fell down and off went his shorts, one knee lifted then the other and they were gone. Her gaze lowered to see his abs, following down a line of rough thin hair centered in his belly and she saw his manhood, shadowed in night he was hard and big. That was the first and only 'man part' she had ever seen before. A deep blush crawled to the surface of her cheeks, burning through her entire body.

Mugen stepped a knee closer and wrapped his arms around her waist and began lowering her back, trusting her to trust him and just lie down in the grass, letting him take control now, which proved no problem. Fuu winced as tool tendrils of grass pricked her backside and then the whole of her back felt the cool touch as Mugen eased her down, using a knee to part her legs which she opened without consent and he positioned himself then paused. "You trust me, right," he whispered softly, his body ached and burned all over, causing a thin layer of sweat to build up on his skin. He had never felt so in heat and alive, and out of control in all his life. Her naked skin was soft and warm, relaxing too touch, the innocent look in her eyes only stretching the stress of his want with her.

Reality flooded her mind suddenly and the world slowly crept into existence. Mugen's expression was so lax and soft, eyes deep and worried. She nodded to him with wide eyes, both of them breathing so rugged someone would have sworn they were having a stroke. A bead of sweat dripped from his brow. Mugen was nervous only for her. He rolled his hips back, hesitated to catch her eyes, then rolled his hips forward fast, a frail cry tore from Fuu's lips. She was burning and wet inside, the part of her that enveloped him was relentlessly squeezing tight, muscles constricting the length of his member which ached and throbbed horribly, causing him to gasp out loud when it broke through the membrane that was her virginity and forced into deeper, more constricting places. Pressed to her he didn't move away. "S,shit . . ." he gasped, his lower back and abs trembling.

She was quiet and it concerned him. He turned his head to look at her through heavily hooded eyelids and found her face was relaxed. "You want me to stop?" Brown irises shifted to him, glossed over in a thick layer of tears and she shook her head gently, strong enough no tears had escaped her eyes. A smirk threatened to turn up the corner of his lips. Mugen admired her bravery. When he was sure the pain for her had past, he curved his hips back and forward, receiving another faint girlish cry that did not sound tinged with pain this time. To his own surprise he gasped again, the velvety moist pocket of hers hugged his member relentlessly. He pulled away again and rolled his hips forward then back, and continued, careful to not surpass gentle trusts for any sort of motion that would cause her to be in pain.

Breathing long pants with soft moans, Fuu relaxed her body, things were beginning to feel good. She felt Mugen push in deeper the more calm she became, finally settling into the cool grass that was starting to accumulate dew around her. Her thighs hugged around his narrow waist rose higher as she ebbed with lulling moans that pushed both of them further off the edge of reality and sanity, occasionally receiving a soft grunt on his part. His member was hard and swollen tight, tugging at the delicate inner walls of her secret place, roughly massaging this place of hers that began to burn with heat and force her to shiver as strong tendrils of pleasure bubbled up within her. His shaggy locks of wild brown hair fell forward and tousled down his forehead. She observed his features in a blurry moment of heightened pleasure, accidentally crying out louder he as thrust in little more hard than before. His focus came to her face and he looked at her then leaned up and kissed her neck, settling his cheek to it before what was going to come next.

In this long moment with her, with their bodies pressed he saw a side of Fuu that not even she knew about. She was delicate and innocent, and more soft hearted then he actually expected her to ever be. Her fingers worked through his hair, massaging his scalp with soft fingertips, causing hair-raising shivers to run up his spin and prickle his skin with goose-bumps. She was being very gentle and kind, very . . . he was having trouble placing it . . . loving. Her knees high on his waist, parted open to their limit, relaxed as he kissed his hips to hers slowly, each time he pulled away the tightness of her warm-wetness would almost cause him to cry out with a moan, producing a rugged inhale instead.

Now she was ready for more, nearly insistent on it as her arms laced around his neck and she kept forcing him closer every time he thrust in, moaning tenderly in his ear. Pulling is length out he crouched over her and withdrew a hand to place it under her knee, pushing it back to the limit at her side. She watched him lick his lips and move his hips closer while leaned over her, held up by one hand on the ground near her shoulder. "You ready, baby," he asked in a soft whisper. Fuu shivered genuinely, with her hips parted she felt so open and did feel how swollen the place between her legs was, that alone felt good, but not the moisture that was causing her to grow cold. Her eyes strayed to catch his own looking upon her, he felt her hands come up and smiled as they touched his cheeks. He leaned down and gave her a kiss, his heart softened by her affectionate gestures, and for the very first time of many first that came this night with her and him, he did feel love for her, perhaps it had been there all along, and the same for her.

As soon as their lips came apart his grip tightened on her thigh and his hips crashed into hers again very roughly with his manhood going deeper than it had gone before, forcing more of her thick moisture out in a way that if Fuu had seen, it would have made her feel disgusting. She screamed out in heated pleasure, he almost hesitated doing it again but couldn't contain himself no more. The hard organ burning within her craved for more heat, more of everything. He started thrusting rapidly, keeping his grip on her so she couldn't slide away, continuously and frantically pumping his body into her, he himself began to moan under his breath, more like subtle grunts, it pleased Fuu more than enough.

It didn't last long, his rapid movements kept getting shorter and rougher, his arms and ass was burning with the effort and he didn't even notice or feel it. Pleasure, sweet everlasting, glorious magnified pleasure was building up and bleaching both their minds, reducing them to states of eternal bliss that both just knew would last forever and all time. But Mugen jerked, thrust, and said her name in a thick, course voice, and she would have heard, but her cry of his name blocked his vocals out. Fuu at the last moment knew this was it, she was dying right then and there, that surge of emotion and wild feeling of infinite passion that burned between her legs straight to her soul would end her life, but she prevailed, and maybe only cause Mugen was wincing and panting like he'd ran non stop for miles to envelope her in his heated passion. They both has succumb to the ultimate feeling of relaxation, pure bliss.

Fuu tried to hug her arms around his neck tighter but her body shuddered in defense and gave up. Her pants slowly softened as did his, they were quiet, she was soft and warm beneath him, and soon giving soft snores. Mugen laughed under his breath, the poor thing had been worn out by him, in such a way he'd gloat about within his mind. Careful not to disturb her calm, he slide to the side, and pulled her close into him. He felt her arms fold between is side and her front, her breasts squished between them. Mugen didn't give a rats hairy ass if Jin came back to find they were no longer at the camp, and still was bent of knocking the fucker out if he came looking for them, not sure why, the feeling was simply there.

3

Jin listened to the waves reaching out of the beach unable to escape the ocean in their slippery wetness and so pull back into the waters, he also listened to her steps following after him, the occasional scratching against the fabric of her kimono as she quickly as possible bent over to itch at her legs. The itching was driving Aikyo mad like a dog infested with fleas, it was impossible to ignore the millions of tiny itching nerves that felt like they were withering under her skin involuntarily. Three minutes had passed when she wanted to scream and roll in the sand like a madman. Jin abruptly stopped after another minute of walking and Aikyo luckily paused in time so that she did not walk into him. "The camp is ahead, You should wash your body off to stay the itching."

Aikyo exhaled and nodded subtly. A fire stood past the hills of grass, unseen except for warm orange light cast against the blackened hill where the land steeply sloped down. Her dark eyes watched him turn her way with slow patience, his gaze centered on her. She nodded again and turned, heading for the waters, the beach where the tide-line drew was littered with kelp and other ocean debris. Jin watched her leave and looked down at one lonely wooden sandal half buried in the sand between his feet. _Hmmm, Mugen._ He hoped both his company were asleep, night was well into its hours already and he had been gone long enough for Fuu to assume something happened to him, which in fact was truth. Coming up the hill the fire waved at him with a heated glimmer of flame, Jin saw neither Fuu nor Mugen. "Hmph." Had they left to look for him? Not Mugen, Jin answered to himself. Perhaps Fuu, and if so, something might have happened to her that caused Mugen to have to follow after and interfere. The only remnants that told of campers was the fire and shish-kebobbed rabbits staked outside the flames and to his surprise, Fuu's sandals and obi. What situation could have caused her to leave behind her obi of all things, when it held her kimono closed? He quickly left the empty camp and went down the hill to where Aikyo sat on her rear, legs submerged in the water, the dark kimono she had on was sitting beside her while she wore only the white kimono undergarment, her pale, slender legs were soaking in the cold ocean, only deep enough that it reached halfway up the width of her legs, her kimono drawn up so it didn't get wet. She turned to see Jin coming her way, his hair still loose and a hardened expression rooted in his face. "Something wrong?"

"Were there more men chasing you?" he half demanded in a subtle voice.

Aikyo looked up at him, her mouth agape but not so open she seemed surprised or distraught. A quick lick at her lips, she shook her head no. "How many did you encounter?"

"Seven," he answered nearly before she could finish.

"If Konichi was the only one left; the one with long hair, then that was it." She watched his face give a short performance of worry, then confusion, and bewilderment. "Is something the matter," she asked gently.

Jin inhaled a deep breath through his nose then exhaled and wore his casual face that was unconcerned yet focused. "My company is gone," he said so simply. Aikyo couldn't help but feel that he was worried still. To question where they were or why he needed to worry was pointless, if he knew where they had gone he wouldn't be worried, that reasoning covering both dilemma's.

Her gaze was still on him, eyes turning to study him as her thoughts tried to solve the issue, considering he had helped her immensely. "Should we search for them?"

She received a contemplative groan from him, his dark eyes veered past her into the distance. If he got rid of those guys after Aikyo, and only one was left, then it was out of question to ponder if that guy had gotten past them going their direction and made to their camp before himself, Mugen would have done the poor soul in with that hurt arm of his anyhow. Perhaps Fuu had a spare obi, one that went easily unnoticed in the folds of her kimono, hidden away. Hell, if she could stole away a rodent in there, then chances for that was likely. But still, what remained was the question of where Mugen and her had gone to. Both of them saw the direction Jin went, no way they had gone to find him, otherwise they would have bumped into one another already. Utter confusion stole his clear thinking.

"Jin?"

He snapped back into reality as his name came in a questioning soft tone of voice. Ebony eyes peered past glass frames glazed in thin streaks of moonlight down at the woman he saved. Her thick lips where being pursed together as it looked like she was trying to understand his thoughts right then. "No, they will return, and if not we will keep going until Uduru is reached, then you can go your way and I will try to find them there."

"Is that were you're headed?"

"Yes," he answered softly and looked away. Aikyo was about to get up when his height diminished and he sat next to her, his face to the ocean, watching dark waves cress upon and pulled over other waves, greedy in their need to reach the shore, moonlight glancing off the water in dull shimmers. Looking at him she gave a small smile and reached out, washing water up her legs where it didn't reach high enough to. His attention drifted to her smooth motions, her hands white as lily petals, small, slender, carefully pushing the liquid up her shines and thighs, that is when he looked away, even if she didn't make it clear if seeing so much of her skin was a bad thing on his part. Her previous situation reminded that perhaps those legs of hers had been seen by many, yet it wasn't for him to look anyway.

She gave a large smile, "It is alright, I'd much rather have a decent man looking at them then one that is not," a tender laugh escaped her lips and she continued washing away at her pale skin, the itching slowly disappearing. She didn't seem to mind his company one bit, it wasn't like a man like him had not seen a woman's legs before. His features fare and smooth, concentrated while concerned, and he'd saved her, giving him an edge of nobility. "You are traveling?"

He was quiet listening to her, her soft laugh helping sooth his thoughts. Sitting slumped over he also listened to the trickling water wash down her legs and through her fingers, his silken ebony hair fallen forward and in his face, hints of his cheeks and chin peeking through the fringe of it. He was traveling alright, and of course his companions had abandoned him, not permanently per say, but it had happened before on one or more occasions, it really was nothing to worry about. "Yes, I am," he paused, the samurai who smelt of sunflowers entered his thoughts and he asked her about this strange man Fuu pursued.

"Sunflowers? I am quite sure I've never seen nor smelt of such a flower before to even know if a samurai has smelt of that. I didn't know samurai could smell of any sort of flower in the first place," she said with a slight embarrassed laugh. "I am sorry I cannot help you, but if I should come across such a samurai, I will do my best to make sure you receive word of it, if possible for me."

He turned to watch her talk, how her lips carefully formed words and how well she spoke, how proper. Who was she really? He'd heard overly zealous courtesans talk in such a clean manner, more often women of the few courts he'd been to who spoke so mannerly. She was definitely beautiful, gods only knew she could be a famous courtesan herself if at all she was marred by being put to work in a brothel. Men would definitely pay some gold to share a bed with her, and it was ignorant to question if someone of nobility or even a lord himself would pay for the same. But he knew she was not that lucky, or else she would not be in the situation she'd come into with that Konichi guy. "Do not be sorry, I am not the one searching for him."

"Oh, then who is," she asked intrigued.

"My female companion," he answered as if it was the most ordinary thing to say, and he didn't even register that it sounded as if he and Fuu were more than just traveling companions, more on the border of lovers, which while Jin wouldn't dare speak aloud about, he'd considered Fuu on many occasions. Not for any particular reasons of course. She was young, unsettled, and it was the only women he could say he knew personally. He watched her nod with a suspicious smile and that was when it dawned on him what he made evident. "No no, she is traveling with me and another man, we are helping her to find the samurai I asked you of."

"Oh," she chuckled then became serious. "You are not married?"

Jin found a bit of a surprised expression on her face. It was alright to assume he wasn't, and for many reasons, reasons few knew besides himself, that there was nothing to be surprised about in the least that he had not taken a woman as wife. "No, I am not," he answered. Aikyo felt that answer come along with a hundred miles of distance between the two of them. The air became strangled, she had asked something that perhaps was too personal, and again, it was an honest question, and whether this commenced with a part of why he was ronin, or that he was saddened about not finding a woman to marry, it made her feel a little guilty. Jin too felt the unsettled air about them and blew it off by standing up, tiny bits of sand falling from his hakama.

Aikyo grabbed up her dark kimono in one hand and stood to meet his sight again, the white undergarment appearing very ghostly in the pale light, her dark tresses of straight black hair the only thing reminding him she was real, for her beauty could have been a mask, delicately painted on the face of an apparition who desired the looks of a princess. Dull glistening droplets of salt water dripped down her pale legs as she folded the kimono over her arm instead of holding it in her hand, Jin thought of the ladies in tea houses that took up customers coats and such, carefully folding it over their forearm and laying an opposite hand atop it as they took it to a hanging post until you were ready to leave, it made him wonder of her past again and what lay in it. "I wondered where I was, I had not thought they had taken me this far," she said with the tiniest bit of woe then portrayed worry, "What if you do not find them there, of course I mean if they are not to return before morning."

He was going to turn and head back for the camp, and didn't consider that Fuu and Mugen wasn't going to return before then. If they had left camp for one reason or another, of which he still couldn't figure out why, no doubt to bicker, they would undoubtedly return before too late. What did catch his attention was the question of how far her captors had taken her, and why was she traveling with them? It wasn't for him question, much like it wasn't for her to question the answer behind why he was ronin, but he had saved her, she owed him some explanation. Waiting until they were at the camp, and seated, Aikyo giving a soft yawn which made him feel the need to yawn in return, he asked. "Where are you from?"

She had entered the camp, finding the objects strewn about besides the fire leading up to why Jin questioned about his companions in himself, whether he knew she had read that much from him. She sat down, the fire showing how filthy she was, how badly tarnished the white kimono was and she knew by sunrise that people would know the kimono was actually dusty brown, although in the past it might have been white at some point. The other kimono, still folded over her arm was a deep purple color, and even more prominent was the bruises up her arms and legs in rugged purples to yellow-brown splotches, even a few up her neck, some faded, some freshly dark, Jin understood those weren't love bites either. Giving him her attention she smiled sadly, "I am from a very small village that sits next to the town of Hideke."

Jin nodded and let his brows raise at the name, "Your not too far away, at most, a weeks journey on foot."

"Yes," she said. "I should manage," Aikyo stopped herself. She wasn't going back there. She would not return to her husband, she would not return to where it was she had been captured, not ever again. Jin remained quiet and for this he received the story he wanted to know, at least what felt okay to tell for her. "I can't go back. My husband, he enjoys gambling too much, and I fear what has happened to me will only repeat. So, I cannot return to him. Konichi, he came after me in secret because my husband refused to pay him. I did not know he was in dept, I didn't expect this to happen, but it did," she finished with a sigh.

Jin had remained impassive and listening. "Konichi, why were you running from him?"

Her sight then fell from him and he regretted going that far. "He is only interested in exploiting the idiots who happen to follow him, and surprisingly many do. I do not know what to call it, but he considers himself and his men yakuza, they traveled to Hideke and set several men up at the dice, and for those that couldn't pay, which that was the plan, they took their wives, children and anything else that could be profited from them moved on. They took from other townsmen in other towns since I had been with them."

"Hmm, sounds very much like yakuza," he said, thinking.

"I've only been with them for a couple of weeks, maybe a few, I can't tell now."

"Why is that?"

"Because," she seemed to insist, "When they do stop, they trade for or buy out a building or floor of a building for a while, that's willing to allow their sort of business, and when we had stopped and gone into the building, we were shut off from being outside, I lost track of night and day then."

"Why is that, could you not see?"

"When we were not working we were bound and blinded folded, so we couldn't escape," she explained and let her hands sink into the sleeves of her kimono, hiding the marks left behind by rough ropes, but it didn't hide them on her ankles which Jin's eyes instinctively directed to, making her want to shy away, but he had already noticed there and she couldn't do anything about it without making it obvious.

Jin wouldn't dare ask what sort of work, there is where he decided to draw the line of questioning. Whether it had been brothel work, pouring tea, it didn't concern him, although he greatly wanted to know. The skin broken in and bruised around her ankles was alarming just to look at. _Hn, had the work she did been so horrible those men found it necessary to bind them so they couldn't escape?_

"Fortunately I was taken out of the brothel before I even began work, mind you a pretty price was involved. I don't understand women who will willingly do such a job," Aikyo said while staring up to the heavens. Jin caught her attention with the question and for some reason he found himself feeling guilty. "I know that some are not given a choice in the matter, and must find some happiness in such work, but I could not. I am not cut out to be a play thing for strange men," her head shook with shame as she looked to the fire to see if it held any pity for her, and it did, perhaps a hint. She returned it a soft sigh and peered at Jin with a certain delicate look in her expression, "I will never be able to thank you enough, you saved me."

"Do not worry about it," he said, keeping impassive.

"No, you do not understand, If I had been captured by them, I might have lost my life or worse."

"Hmph, worse?"

She directed her sight away immediately, having said too much, but the clue was given and she knew it was only fair to solve the rest. "The man, Konichi, he wanted me for . . ." she suddenly trailed off, trying and not wanting to deliver the rest and how to put it so she didn't speak in terms that weren't ladylike.

"It is alright, you don't have to finish, get some rest."

4

The twinkling stars showed him no pity, nor could his dead companions, really they were mere dust-hands, the sort you could brush off like dirt on your palms when the job was finished. Konichi did not expect this. Who ever the hell that guy was dealt his whole crew a nasty blow, his best three men were lain dead in the sand of the beach, blood spilled and drained from what had been living, breathing bodies, bodies that had been loyal overall. He needed those men, gods have pity on Aikyo, he thought, because if he caught her ever again, she would pay tenfold and then some. Shoichi, Tako, Tsumanpo, they were dead, Tako, his best friend, the same kid he shared beatings with for stealing as a child, he was dead now. Gone forever was the guy he spent nearly every day of his life with, his partner and dear friend was taken out in what surely was less than split seconds, one blow, and no mercy what so ever. And while Konichi felt the excruciating pain in his arm burning through his body and pulsing thick heart-wrenching throbs, part of him died inside his heart of hearts, a very small place within him which had been filled to full capacity, now just as dead and gone as his friend was.

Tako was more of a brother than the fuck's who did share his blood, long forgotten in his past now. When he was at his lowest, Tako had been there to remind him their was higher places to be, and he did the same for him in return. They shared women, secrets, and knew everything about one another to the sense that yes, they were brothers not by blood but by heart, and now that had been taken from him. Konichi gaped at the heavens above and whaled a course yell and broke down to deep sobs of anguish and guilt. They did not have to chase Aikyo, that fucking bitch. He'd rip the hair from her head till she was bald and bloody, and he'd beat her until she no longer looked human but like a skinned animal. More than 20 years he and Tako had been friends, only for some sword flicking dick-head to sever that bond.

He howled another deafening cry into the night and held his upper arm, grasping around the throbbing flesh above the wounded section of his forearm. Thick rasp of heated air escaped his lungs. The pain had began to take his mind over and his injuries devastation started to sink in. He couldn't feel his fingers, could not even will them to move in the slightest. "Oh fuck," he whimpered desperately and had another try at moving his hand. It didn't even twitch. It was very shocking but there was little he could do right then, and if he didn't hurry back to his band's camp, there was a great chance he would be able to nothing later.

Gasping and moaning in pain so bad tears were trailing down his cheeks, Konichi stumbled through the woods, every time he took a step, no matter how soft, the mere movement caused his pain to flare and threaten to make him woozy. It wasn't far off, the camp was maybe a half mile, but to Konichi, it felt like it was across the world. He pushed and shoved past bushes and tree limbs, and finally saw the light of the many fires glowing in blurry blotches of color. He gaped at the camp, the darkened lights of night faded to black for a moment and then returned, colorful spots danced in a black sea as his vision tried to recuperate. To no avail, his pain was too much, the wound was a crippling injury. He whined letting go of his upper arm, letting his half dead limb fall by his side loosely. Tears flooded down his cheeks, the pain causing him to heave for breath and try to hold it to stave off horrid aches of pain that left him shivering and shaking uncontrollably, his body contorting with each throb of pain.

Sweat emitted from his pores so profusely he didn't know if he had pissed his pants, and even if he had, it was hard to remember why. The world went deaf and dead, those colorful spots returned in dancing whirls. He fell to his knees and doubled over, vomiting. The putrid smell of his own bile caused him to puke again. In a bleary moment of confusion and wonder he looked up, wiping his mouth with the side of his hand in a quick and lazy swipe and saw dark figures moving in towards him, then things went black, as if the abyss had finally come to claim him and take away his sorrow and agony lain heavy upon him, the weight of the world taken off his poor deprived body.

_A sea of red, no, a bloody sky, purple and black clouds lingering on the horizon. The air was cool, the moment frozen and he didn't understand why and no one was there for him to explain it either. Winds shifted but he didn't feel them, only heard them. The view of the world whirled and he felt his body collide into the ground, the sky looking down at him, cold and uncaring. A gleam of polished silver flashed like a beacon, a thick red liquid sprayed. He saw blackness taking him over, yet why, why had Tako left him, why had he chose this life? There were so many other paths to take, but no, this was his life, fate handed it to him caused he asked it to, he'd tempted it to all along and the end wasn't what he expected, although the smallest part of him kept saying 'I told you so'_.

_I told you so . . ._

_I told you so . . ._

_"I told you so,"_ _Tako's face faded into view from the blackness, the scar on the bridge of his nose right where it had been since he received it from that samurai they'd killed back in Kiri behind the brothel house some time in their early twenties, about a decade ago. His grey eyes peering at him, wild hair shaggy and brown. NO! It was not Tako. No._

_Cold, narrow eyes peered down at him from the face of a youth with dark skin, shaggy, wild brown mane, a face that had seen a lot in it's short life and knew enough that got him through each day so he saw the next. Blood was streaked down one half of his face, the rest of him drenched in sweat mixed with grim he'd no doubt accumulated on the hazardous venture to kill him, a hellbent trip from start to finish. His lips peeled back, his teeth were blood coated too, a menacing snarl both evil and corrupt looked down on him. A quick jerking pain interrupted his chest and he saw the flash of silver again, blood spraying through the air, the snarl gone, only blackness. . ._

_Only blackness . . ._


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Alright guys, this chapter is a bit short, just about Mugen and Fuu, the next chapter everyone needs to give me a month on. It's going to be the longest chapter yet, I'm hoping to get 10-12 segments in it, ( that's about 30 to 40 pages on WordPerfect - the program I write on, then later move to microsoftword =P). And things that will come up in the story that you guys might have questions about will be pre-answered before the beginning of the chapter, under the author's note. There is a lot of stuff that comes up in the next chapter that may confuse you if I don't tell you about it beforehand, concerning japanese culture and how it really was.

Oh, and if you had a question about the last chapter, go to it and read the newly updated version of it, I will usually answer questions this way, so check previous chapters if you had a question and asked it in a review.

Even better news, **I ****have** finished the **artwork** **of Mugen and Fuu for this chapter**, yes, that means the picture goes with this chapter, but don't go look at it until you've read the chapter, ( and if you can't wait, lol, eh, what the hell right? lol)

**You may go here to view the artwork and review it if you like **

h t t p : / / w w w . m e d i a m i n e r . o r g / f a n a r t / v i e w . p h p / 1 9 7 8 9 6

The artwork has been newly re-edited

(Art currently being worked on for later chapters : Konichi, Aikyo and Jin)

**And thank you guys for all the reviews!**

______________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 6

**Beautiful**

Sticky wetness, clinging on his back like frost on a newly budding leaf after a winter storm, the season verging on spring, but spring had past, and the hot days of summer had long since set in, and he knew it was dew for some reason beyond the dreamy haze of sleep. Mugen groaned, something nearly stiff as steel weighed heavy between his legs, but he was to groggy to make sense of it. His eyes peeled open, a thin layer of crust breaking and crumbling down his cheeks from the corner of his eyes, one tiny piece catching in his lashes and when he tried to blink it away without being blinded by morning's faint light, it clung to his eyeball, burning menacingly. "Fucking, Eye BOOGER!" he roughly yelled in annoyance with the company of a yawn and rubbed both his eyes with the heels of his hands while stretching his legs so hard the muscles in his calves threatened to snap.

A soft sigh pierced his ears and he almost flew up in surprise to it, relaxing when Fuu, a bleary image of her sleeping face appeared. He relaxed then suddenly shoved up from the ground, glaring down at her in shock. The dreamy recess of sleep had almost taken away the nights memory they shared. He admitted to himself that it was stupid to forget something like that, even more stupid that he had fucked her. But then he looked down at Fuu, laying on her side in the dew covered cushion of the grass, curled up so innocently, although naked, beautiful, and, and hot. His balls were aching with the need to relive last night, even worse was the morning wood he had, a problem he'd encountered enough that he knew how to deal with it probably better than any guy in the world with years of experience in that field. But he couldn't leave Fuu there alone, especially naked, and hell, she slept with him once, why not again. Now, things were different, his wall had been broached, he himself had tore it down and shown what affection and care he was capable of giving another. It made him feel awkward, embarrassed, even afraid, but he would have to try to learn to deal with this strange side of himself, something close to a duel personality he didn't know about.

He inhaled deeply, slowly releasing his breath and laid down on his side beside her. Reaching to her, he delicately brushed aside the brown fringe of her long bangs, revealing all her relaxed face. She was very pretty, he thought. Seeing her so close up in the light of day, and yes, of course they'd literally butted heads on many occasions, but he never was looking at her to see anything good, never searching for the thing many men assumed was beauty, and while many men had not searched good enough with her, he saw it, he alone had found it, after all this time. Tiny, almost unseen light brown freckles dotted across her cheeks and over the bridge of her small nose. Her lips, petite were actually nicely shaped, not the sort of lips you saw painted on whores in the brothel. Real lips, Fuu lips, he thought with a sheepish smile.

Her eyes fluttered open tenderly, he watched her shimmery brown lashes flutter open wearily, tired eyes peeking out at the world, only to find him, which in the short amount of time they had bonded so, he was that to her, the world. Her lips drew up into a tiny, amused smile and she bit her lower lip, looking away from him while hugging her arms around his neck. Mugen swallowed as she pressed her body to his and slithered his hand between them without her noticing, trying his best to hide his stiffy.

Fuu didn't seem to notice, she didn't seem to care. _I can't believe this, we, I, us, _she didn't know what to think, but what thoughts were there made her heart flutter ever so softly. It was hard for her to keep her smile bit back. Mugen was being quiet, he wasn't rejecting her or trying to act like nothing they did mattered to him, something she had indeed feared he might do. "Sleep okay," she asked and looked up at the sky, the sun had yet to rise, purple clouds frosted in vibrant pink stood in the distant sky in thin, puffy wisps. Everything around them seemed hushed except for the merry tunes of many birds waking to this wonderful morning.

Mugen eased his arm around the sloping curve of her waist after he was sure his issue down stairs had vanished, not as much as he wanted it to, good enough though. "Yeah," he answered solemnly, his voice cracking.

Fuu huffed a soft laugh and craned her neck back to peer at him, his eyes strayed away to nothing in the distance and she grew afraid for a second. "Slept real good, you?" his sight finally on her and that look of distance gone.

"Real good," she answered and relaxed for a minute. Mugen settled with quiet and rested his eyes shut, both of them resting in silence, waiting for the groggy hold sleep had on them to fade away. "Mugen?" Her voice sounded so small, so soft, if he had been another ten feet away he might not of heard her at all. So, he waited, and when she didn't say anything else, he opened his eyes to find her own gazing at him, wondering over the features he had, sharp, distinct, very Mugen, she thought.

"Yeah?" Fuu's eyes locked with his and he watched a blush appear on her cheeks, that soul-clenching feeling hitting them both, as if looking into one another's eyes might tell all the secrets of the universe. He waited, watching her closely, seeing her expression subtly change, and that too, if he hadn't been watching so closely, could have appeared unchanged. Now there was worry, and question on her face. Was there something she was holding back from him, should have told him? Her face was whispering that much to him, but he didn't want to be presumptuous.

"I just, I-"

"Yes, Yeah. . ." he insisted impatiently, and that was the side of him she didn't like, except that Mugen couldn't help but see fear in her eyes, he then caught note of her breathing, quick and thick. He didn't wait for what she was trying to say, Mugen let both arms form around her waist, hugging her too him, he rolled over on his back, Fuu kept her chin lifted, finding herself on top of him, nude as the day she was born, foggy morning light revealing all about her that night had not, and while Mugen may have touched, kissed, or some other action against her body, the exposure now left her feeling awkward and wanting to hide. She couldn't let that show, and why worry? _He's seen plenty of other girls naked . . . women naked. _Fuu's jaw tightened, it left her feeling a little mad, all those other women. This was now though, not then, this was with her, he was looking at her, giving Fuu his attention. She had no reason to be angry with him. Besides all of it, while yes, he had been with other women, he had chose to be with her last night, not a bouty-chested-wide-hipped-hot-one-night-stand.

Mugen watched her eyes saunter in the distance, a smirk tugged at his lips, "You what, Fuu?" he asked with such a playful demand in his tone, then tightened his arms around her waist, squeezing so tight her lungs released air with a soft hiss. Fuu's mouth broke into a smile and she coughed laughter, struggling to sit up, and when she had, her eyes glistened with wonder down on him, looking at him lovingly.

"I," she sighed contentedly, "love you."

His face went blank, all the sudden leaving Fuu feeling cold and alone. Her heart throbbed painfully in her chest. "Face it kid, you don't love me," he said and looked away, feeling sure of himself. She definitely had caught him off guard. And Mugen saw no way out of her drunken serenade of bottomless love for him, worse was his for her, but he didn't know how to voice it, or show it without feeling like he was exposed to the world and left to the cold uncaring torture life might hand him for being a sissy. His wall of defense somehow still remained.

Fuu gulped and looked away, her body burned from embarrassment and shame. _Why did I have to say that! I should have kept my mouth closed. _Breathing deeply she turned her sight away and climbed off of him, going to where her kimono was and quickly shouldered it on. She had ruined it with him . . .

Or, had he used her?

Mugen watched her without feeling one damn bit of guilt. And then that little edge, the tiniest bit of his forgotten conscience surfaced to remind him that he was human, and that he might be wrong to shove her off like that. But, maybe it was best this way. He had created the perfect diversion to push their relationship back to where it was, not on the best of terms, but they really hadn't been on good terms to start with. Mugen relaxed, then wanted to jump up, torn between what he didn't want to admit he felt for her and what his own raw gut-feeling wanted to do, that survival mechanism that said: toss the bitch to the side and move on, don't be attached, cause feelings make any man a pussy. Swallowing a heavy gulp he sat up and crawled to her.

Fuu, turned from him, was trying to figure out how to fold her kimono shut so that she didn't have to hold it, but nothing was working out, and the diversion of this issue she set up so Mugen didn't enter her thoughts was in vain. She wanted to disappear, and was hating herself for having such a big mouth. Then his arms wrapped around her, his warmth smothering and so comfortable. He hugged her too him tight, both their hearts fluttered expectantly.

"I am not good at saying all that cheesy stuff," he said and rested his chin on her shoulder, not sure what else he should say or if there was something more that needed to be said. Her cool touch was placed over his arms around her waist, hugging him gently in return.

Fuu felt relieved. She didn't expect great conflagrations of oozing love to pour from him, she knew that wasn't something he did or probably ever had done, but she now knew what affection he was capable of and that satisfied her. "You don't have smother me you now, I mean," His grip loosened even though her words were gentle. Afraid he was taking her wrong she hurried her thoughts, "You don't have to treat me like how other girls want to be treated." He almost gave a confused 'huh', instead Mugen absorbed her words. "Uh, what I mean is that, you don't have to say it back for me to know you do, I-, if you, you do, I mean . . . . . . An-, and if you don't then, then-" _Gods! Why I am so stupid!_

His face beheld an amused yet soft smile, his thoughts snickering at her unsure stuttering. "Enough of this," he whispered and drew tender kissed up her cheek. Fuu shrugged her shoulders up, giggling. When his kisses finished at her temple his chin rested back on her shoulder. "We should get back, Ol'fish Face is probably wondering about us." His arms unfolded from her, his arm she watched come past her, grabbing up his cloths and quickly putting them on, last of all his sword, placed over his head and slung against his back with ease, he came to where he was with his arms folded around her once more.

Fuu sighed, "Yeah, your right."

"Oh am I?"

"Just this once," she laughed and playfully pushed him back and stood up, stretching her arms to the sky as far as they could reach while walking down to the beach. Mugen was right behind her, his eyes watching her kimono billowing open from behind, quickly thinking, a devilish smirk crossed his face and he reached around while her arms were still up, and squeezed the soft mounds of her breasts. Fuu squealed and shoved his hands away, Mugen only tittered. She had to laugh as well, feeling giddy inside, perhaps the unspoken consent that this day would be a good day, unlike the previous. The ocean looked so beautiful, the waters dark, when a faint sparkle illuminated the waves on the horizon. She immediately turned her head the other direction, watching a luminous spark of dark orange rise over the darkened treetops. The sun was rising in wavering orange light, "Isn't it beautiful," she whispered to Mugen.

He turned to see the edge of the sun coming up and placed a hand over her shoulder, letting it hang there as they watched the sun growing larger, brighter, waking up the world with a touch of warmth and life. Fuu reached up lacing her fingers through his and he looked over her shoulder at her face, the sun making her skin glow, _Yeah, it is._


End file.
